Chelsea Winstanley is a renowned New Zealand producer, visual storyteller, and Oscar-nominated director known for What We Do in the Shadows, Jojo Rabbit, and Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen(2018). She is Taika Waititi‘s ex-wife in addition to having a great filmmaking career. Scroll down below to know more about her relationship with Taika.
Who Is Chelsea Winstanley?
Chelsea Winstanley was born on January 30, 1976, in Tauranga, New Zealand. Her father, John Winstanley was a home decorator and her mother, Cherry Wilson was a psychotherapist. In 2003, Chelsea earned a degree in television production at the top of her class from the Australian University of Technology. She attended an EAVE Producers Course in Europe in 2011 seven years later.
Chelsea Winstanley’s Career
She directed a number of short films, including Night Shift, Ebony Society, and Meathead. She worked with Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement in the 2014 movie What We Do in the Shadows. Additionally, she contributed to the films Merata Mita and Te Whakarauora Tangata.
Winstanley and Tweedie Waititi established Matewa Media, a film production firm, in 2017. The company specialises in producing Disney animated film adaptations in the Mori language. The studio has produced versions of Moana (which debuted in 2017), The Lion King, and Frozen in 2020. In 2020, she directed the documentary Toi T Toi Ora. She had a career turnaround in 2018 when she produced Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen, a documentary about Meta Mita.
Chelsea holds a seat in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ production division in addition to producing and directing. Winstanley received the New Zealand Order of Merit Officer title.
Chelsea Winstanley And Taika Waititi
Chelsea first met Taika when she interviewed him for a television documentary series about artists. Their romance began with that initial encounter, and they soon began dating. In 2011, Chelsea got married at a New York-held wedding.
After seven years of marriage, Chelsea and Taika got divorced in 2018, but they were able to keep it a secret until 2020. They kept the dissolution of their marriage under wraps, which only increased the rumours about the true reason for the divorce. Notably, rumours regarding his relationship with singer and X Factor judge Rita Ora began to circulate.
In 2018, the year he and Chelsea got divorced, Rita met him. Although it is unknown if the two were already dating, relationship rumours began to circulate by 2021. Rita’s photo of herself and a man who was purported to be Waititi received attention as well. The couple got engaged in August of the same year, revealing their romance to the world.
Chelsea Winstanley: Mother Of Three
Chelsea has a son named Maia from a prior relationship before she married Taika. She was barely twenty when she gave birth to him. Winstanley and Waititi are parents to two children, Te Hinekhu, 7, and Matewa Kiritapu, 4. At movie premieres, Waititi frequently travels with his girls, and he frequently posts pictures of them on Instagram.
What Is Chelsea Winstanley Doing Now?
Chelsea has moved on with her life since her marriage ended. She moved from Los Angeles to New Zealand to further her profession, yet it is unknown if she is seeing anyone. The filmmaker is back at the Auckland University of Technology where she accepted a job as an artist in residence after returning to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020.
She received a KEA international award in 2021, a year after her relocation, for her contributions to the film business.
Since then, her spouse has gone on with his life. In 2022, Taika and Rita Ora secretly married. Since many of Rita and Taika’s admirers are still anticipating a lavish celebration soon, they have not explained why they decided to have a secret wedding.
