Rachel O’Neill is a filmmaker, writer and artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. They are Pākehā, queer and non-binary (they/them/she/her).
As a writer/director Rachel is developing feature film, episodic and short film projects. After being awarded a SEED Grant (NZWG/NZFC) to develop their feature drama UNDERGROUND FIRES, the script was selected for the 2nd round of consideration for both the 2020 and 2021 Sundance Development Tracks. Rachel recently wrote, directed and produced SHE SEWED HIM IN A BLANKET (2021), a short developed during the 2017 Aotearoa Short Film Lab.
In addition to screen-based projects, O’Neill writes books and collaborates on exhibitions and cross-disciplinary projects. They strive to seek out fresh ways to see and understand the human condition and to unearth the humour and strangeness that underlie experience. The author of One Human in Height (Hue & Cry Press, 2013) and Requiem for a Fruit (Tender Press, 2021), O’Neill has received a range of development grants, residencies and commissions.
As the 2023 CNZ Randell Cottage Writing Fellow, Rachel completed their third book, ‘Symphony of Queer Errands’, a hybrid-form narrative poem. The work draws on poetic and musical forms such as songs, chants, score sheets, dramatic dialogue, found sonic material, beat samples and extended lyric sequences that aim to register as music with symphonic structure on the page.
They are currently working on a collection of prose poems and longer narrative poems, several screenplays and a dystopian novel.
Rachel holds a BA/BFA Conjoint Degree from the University of Auckland/Elam School of Fine Art, a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington/International Institute of Modern Letters, and a Poupou Huia Te Reo Certificate, Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Aotearoa.
Rachel O'Neill 