At the moment Tainui Tukiwaho isn't a familiar face on our television screens, but that's about to change for the Rotorua-born actor.
On Sunday he appeared in TV1's drama Tangiwai and this Sunday he plays the legendary comic Billy T James in the television drama Billy.
In a few weeks he has a part in Rage, about the 1981 Springbok rugby tour protests, so New Zealand will get to see a lot more of the actor who can trace his ancestry back to Te Arawa and Tuhoe.
For Tukiwaho, who is from Ngati Rangiteaorere, the role of Billy T James is the biggest of his career.
The drama Billy is the story of New Zealand's legendary entertainer Billy T James. TVNZ said the prime time feature-length drama was based on the biography Billy T, written by Matt Elliott, and was made with the approval of James' widow, Lynn Matthews.