Assuming the planet will have a future, it is the young people of today who will be shaping and running it. Herewith, in alphabetical order, is a list of 30 people who are in their 30s or under and making their marks. Fields that lend themselves to early success – music, sport – are well represented, but so, too, are politics, business, science and leadership.
1. Owyn Aitken and Hadi Daoud
Computer-recycling entrepreneurs
If there are fewer computers in landfills than there used to be, it’s partly thanks to the initiative of this pair and their company Remojo Tech, founded in 2020 “to create a sustainable solution to the problem of e-waste and digital inequity in Aotearoa” – in other words, to keep used computers out of the dump and put them in the hands of people who otherwise would not have them.
2. Sukhans Asrani
Learning technology
Flashcard learning has been brought into the digital age with Zorbi, founded by Asrani, who has been developing online enterprises since the age of 12. His product adapts the tried-and-true revision method by using an algorithm to help students put their effort in the right place. Like many great innovations, Zorbi was inspired by Asrani’s own experience – the frustration he felt when he was a student.
3. Ben Bell
Mayor of Gore
Dubbed New Zealand’s youngest mayor, Bell became the mayor of Gore at the ripe age of 23. The mini-series-worthy machinations at Gore District Council focus on the professional relationship – or lack of it – between the 24-year-old mayor and the gimlet-eyed council chief executive Stephen Parry. So far, the young achiever has seen off all challenges by the old fox, but we recommend watching this space.
4. Benee
Musician
This singer-songwriter made it the old-fashioned way – gaining major traction for her breakthrough Supalonely on TikTok at the age of 19. The veteran had already been writing and recording for two years by then. She attended Auckland’s St Mary’s College – alma mater of fellow diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – and was responsible for the official song of the Fifa Women’s World Cup with Do it Again (ft. Mallrat).
5. Te Kahukura Boynton
Finance guru
With a mission to boost financial security for Māori by increasing understanding of how to grow and manage money, Waikato law student Boynton set up maorimillionaire.com last year. She has been an investor herself since the age of 14, beginning with KiwiSaver and cautiously but consistently expanding into other areas and gaining knowledge that she wants to share via the website.
6. Moniola Chinwendu
Queer hair artist
AKA Mary da Fairy, Chinwendu, who was born in Lagos and moved here from Nigeria when she was seven, really does make art with hair, linking it to traditions dating back to slavery, and documenting it in her photography. “The beauty of Black Hair and the shapes and stories it holds have always been a huge interest of mine as I find it to be sacred. It is our crown,” she told stayhappening.com.
7. Julian Dennison
Actor
The young co-star of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, who gained notice for his ability to steal scenes from Sam Neill, has been on a steady trajectory as he negotiates the sometimes-tricky transition from cute kid star to young adult performer via Marvel blockbuster Deadpool 2. He stars in the upcoming Y2K, a disaster comedy set on New Year’s Eve 1999, and before that will be seen in the lead role of Uproar, set during the 1981 Springbok tour.
8. Irihapeti Edwards
“Financial freak”, community leader
There’s no avoiding the fun fact that comes up every time something is written about Edwards: at the age of 18, she became the youngest person ever to work at Deloitte, one of the “big four” international accounting firms, where she was a consultant. A family background where money was in short supply inspired her to break out of the poverty cycle. She has since worked around the world as an analyst and educator with a focus on pay and gender equity.
9. Kate Gatfield-Jeffries
Lawyer and mentor
Co-founder of the Woman in Law mentoring programme at the University of Auckland, Gatfield-Jeffries was the EY Corporate Finance Woman of the Year 2021. While still a student, she also co-founded Moodi, a wellness brand for women, which, as she explained to enterprisingwomen.ac.nz, markets supplements that “contain clinically proven, patented active ingredients for stress, sleep, focus, and energy”.
10. Ezra Hirawani
Power supplier
The 2022 young New Zealander of the Year has made it his mission to bring power to those parts of the population that sometimes struggled to afford it. He is co-founder of electricity company Nau Mai Rā, which is able to sell power more cheaply as a result of a deal with a major generator. It’s a quintessential social enterprise that sets aside a portion of profits for charity and tries to maintain a policy of never cutting off supply to slow payers.
11. Claudia Jardine
Poet
The definition of poet is expanded by Jardine, who has an MA in Classics, the Alex Scobie research prize and a Marsden grant to her credit. She has produced an EP of folk rock entitled North and this year her first collection, Biter, was published by Auckland University Press. Jardine told nzbooklovers.co.nz the collection “would not have been possible without several years of Ancient Greek and Latin classes”.
12. Elliot Jones
Dyslexia activist
Unlocking Potential is a documentary Jones made while in Year 13 to bring home the reality of dyslexia. He persuaded several prominent dyslexia sufferers to talk about their experience. He aimed to show that the condition, with which he was diagnosed at the age of 12, need not be an impediment to achievement. The success of the film and his own example more than demonstrated the champion debater’s thesis.
13. Amber Joseph
Founder Nextwork
Originally planning to be an artist, Joseph started studying computer science at school and found it a natural fit. A university assignment led to a job offer that rapidly turned into a training position with an online company and ultimately to the idea for Nextwork, which, she told founderoo.co, “exists to make learning a new vocational skill and starting a new career easy”. It was an instant success.
14. Claudia Kogachi
Painter and textile artist
Japanese-born Kogachi has shown her work widely since graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts. Her practice comprises both traditional painting and rug-making, the latter a diversion partly due to Covid, when she had trouble accessing other materials during lockdown. Her rugs are made by shooting yarn out of a tufting gun and have been described, in the New Zealand Herald, as a fantastical world and “new age tapestry on acid”.
15. Georgia Latu
Poi maker
Potiki Poi’s teenage CEO started her Dunedin-based company when she was 12. It all began when she made poi to raise funds for a school trip and was surprised at how much money she made. A few years later, in 2022, at 16, she won a Young Māori Business Leader Award. A contract to supply poi for the Women’s Rugby World Cup set the daunting target of making 30,000 poi, which she achieved, and she now supplies shops as far away as Japan.
16. Eteroa Tusipepa Lafaele
Tech guru
Lafaele is a passionate advocate for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), especially for Māori and Pasifika women, to which end she co-founded computer recycling charity DigiTautua, and FibreFale, a “social enterprise designed to funnel Pasifika into tech leadership”. Among her most satisfying achievements, she lists building a Tokelau language app. Lafaele was NZ Young IT Professional of the Year 2021.
17. Liam Lawson
Formula One driver
It’s been an unstoppable progress to the finish line for the still-rising superstar from Hastings, who turned 21 this year. Competing in Formula One is a dream he has pursued, despite once having been advised by an older New Zealand driver to give up on it. Accolades include being named best driver in the world for his age at 16, 17 and 18. He made his Formula One debut in the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
18. Arizona Leger
Sports administrator
A director on the board of Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union, Leger is also an in-demand writer and speaker. She represented New Zealand as indigenous delegate at the G(irls)20 Summit in Tokyo in 2019 and was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Young New Zealander of the Year. She is of Māori-Pasifika heritage, but once said, “I also feel like if rugby was a nationality, I would be part-rugby.”
19. India Logan-Riley
Climate change activist
Winner of the 2021 Stanford University Bright Award, Logan-Riley has a particular work focus on the effects of climate change on indigenous peoples, many of whom are likely to be severely affected by rising sea levels. In 2021, Logan-Riley spoke at the opening of the United Nations Climate Change conference. They are currently climate justice advisor at community campaigning organisation ActionStation.
20. Campbell Luke
Fashion designer
Featured at this year’s Fashion Week, Luke has a CV that includes a PhD in fashion, a lectureship at Victoria University of Wellington and work with European designers in Amsterdam and Zurich. He has small-town roots in Hāwera and got a start in fashion as an intern with Dame Trelise Cooper. His designs are complex creations that he says tell a story and can address themes as serious as colonisation and bereavement.
21. Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke
Political candidate
A headline-grabbing candidate selection for Te Pāti Māori, at No 4 on their list, Maipi-Clarke, 20, enters national politics with a chance of getting into Parliament and becoming the country’s youngest MP in 170 years. She has an impeccable whakapapa that includes Hana Te Hemara, a pioneer in the revival of te reo Māori. She faces off against Nanaia Mahuta in the Hauraki-Waikato electorate.
22. Aubrie Mitchell
Producer/songwriter
In the “one to watch” category, Mitchell is credited with having enough of the musical X factor to fulfil her ambitions. Already well regarded for her writing and performing talent, she is also a model and digital artist. She has been honing her skills working at music hub Big Fan and has recently been in Los Angeles, gaining first-hand experience of the music industry at the highest level.
23. Tristan Pang
Mathematician
He graduated from the University of Auckland with a BSc in maths and physics four years ago at age 17, having already tutored there at age 14. He got his MSc at Oxford and is currently at the Leiden University doing a PhD in Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms. “Part of my goal is to discover maths that can benefit the world,” he told the NZ Herald, and there seems little doubt he can achieve it.
24. Josh Ross
Chef
A head chef at the age of 23, Ross has a background that includes training at Wellington’s Logan Brown restaurant and studying at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Last year, he came third in the International Jeunes Chefs Rotisseurs (Young Chef) competition. He’s currently head chef at Parliament’s Bellamy’s, but MPs should enjoy his cooking while they still can as he says “working in some of the top 50 restaurants in the world is a big dream of mine”.
25. Payton Spencer
Rugby player
Sporting royalty, as the son of rugby legend Carlos Spencer, fullback Payton turned heads earlier this year with an impressive debut for the All Blacks Sevens in Sydney, hot on the heels of a stellar performance as fullback and goal-kicker for the Hamilton Boys’ High School team that won the World Schools Festival Championship in Thailand. He now has his sights set on the Sevens competition at next year’s Paris Olympics.
26. Mikayla Stokes
Scientist
An advocate for female participation in science, mechatronics engineer Stokes describes herself as “passionate about changing the culture around STEM and being a role model to encourage young girls to pursue a career in science and technology”. To that end, she co-founded TechGirls NZ, which supports young women with ambitions in science. She also makes robots.
27. Chlöe Swarbrick
Member of Parliament
Boasting star power that has endeared her to the voters of Auckland Central, if not to all of the Green Party membership, Swarbrick pulled off one of the great feats of modern politics when she became the second Green to win an electorate seat and the first to hold one for a second term. An apparently tireless force for reform since she entered Parliament at 23.
28. Jazz Thornton
Mental health advocate
In the eloquent words of her website: “Having overcome childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and multiple suicide attempts, Jazz Thornton has now dedicated her life to speaking hope and creating change in the area of mental health through her organisation Voices of Hope.” She also has a sideline in reality TV, with appearances on Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Treasure Island.
29. Brooke van Velden
Member of Parliament
The anti-Chlöe, and her party’s deputy leader, the supremely capable van Velden’s political life includes history as a Green voter before she moved to the other end of the spectrum as an Act staffer and then MP. Describing herself as “from a family of small business owners and hard workers”, she made her political name as a campaigner for the End of Life Choice legislation and is one of the few Act MPs allowed out in public on their own.
30. Hannah Wilkinson
Footballer
In 2011, Wilkinson scored a goal that gave the Football Ferns their first ever World Cup point. Twelve years later, her superstar status was confirmed when she scored another landmark goal to give a New Zealand team their first win in a World Cup – and brought the Fifa Women’s World Cup competition alive for the whole country. Also, she has four songs on Spotify.
