Wall of High Achievers

     
  The 1970s  
1971-74 Husmukh Bhikha 1984 Olympian – Hockey
 Hus Hus left school and qualified as an electrician then moved on to business management roles in the electrical industry.  He also kept playing hockey and moved from a secondary schools rep to an U21 and senior representative.  He earned 200 caps playing for Wellington. In 1983 he was chosen for the New Zealand Hockey team and earned 15 caps.  Hus went to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.  After the Olympics Hus continued to play for the Wellington and NZ Indians while still enjoying local hockey playing for the Wellington Indian Sports Club. Hus has had various coaching roles from juniors to senior positions giving something back to the sport which he has enjoyed so much.
1970-75 Deborah MacFarlane BS(Hons), MPH, Dermatologist
 Deb Macfarlane After training for a MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) at Otago 1985 and further clinical years in surgery at Auckland Hospital, Deborah trained in dermatology at Columbia University, in New York City in 1993 and Mohs Surgery at Baylor, Houston 1996. Deborah is Professor of Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at The University of Texas Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas and is Director of Mohs Surgery Unit and Director of Procedural Dermatology She specializes in skin cancer surgery. She has published 46 major articles on her research and has ongoing research into aggressive and non aggressive non basal cell carcinomas Deborah’s textbook on ‘Skin Cancer Management’ a practical approach was published last year and she will chair the American College of Mohs Surgery 2012 meeting.  Deborah is making a significant global contribution to treating and preventing skin cancers.
1974-78 Brendan MacFarlane M Arch Architect
 Brandan Mcfarlane Brendan received his B.Arch degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (1984), and his M.Arch degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1990).  He has held teaching positions at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London (1996–98), at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris (1998–99), at SCI-Arc (2006) and at various other schools. MacFarlane is an architect and principal of Jacob & MacFarlane ,a Paris based firm.  Some of his main projects include the T House at la Garenne Colombes, Paris, (1998), Restaurant Georges at the Pompidou Centre, Paris (2000), the reconstruction of the Theatre de Pont-Audemer, (1999–2000), the Docks of Paris project, three buildings for the 100 Apartments project in Paris, and The Orange Cube, Cardinal Headquarters and RBC Showroom in Lyon in 2010. Current projects include the Euronews Headquarters in Lyon, the new FRAC Architecture Exhibition Center in Orléans, a Dance and Music Conservatory in Noisy-le-Sec and the Swiss Cultural Center in Paris. Brendan’s firm Jakob+MacFarlane regularly participates in invited competitions and recently won first honourable mention of the International Taïpei Performing Arts Center Competition, Taiwan.
1973-74 Fran Walsh – MNZM Screenwriter
  Fran Walsh, Lady Jackson, MNZM  is a screenwriter, film producer and musician. She attended Victoria University of Wellington majoring in English literature and graduated in 1981. She then wrote scripts for television shows such as Shark in the Park and Worzel Gummidge Down Under in the 1980s. Since meeting Peter Jackson at the end of Bad Taste, she has collaborated and contributed to all of Jackson’s films, starting with the black comedy Meet the Feebles (1989). Fran is credited with Jackson and Phillipa Boyens for writing the  screenplays for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  She won three Academy Awards in 2003, for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Original Song, (A shadow lies between us) all for the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. She has received a total of eight Oscar nominations and countless other awards. The trio continued their screenplay work together for the 2005 remake of King Kong and Fran and Jackson collaborated on a film version of the novel The Lovely Bones. Fran is currently Executive producer & writer for the Hobbit.
1974-78 Danny Mulheron Director, Actor, Writer
 Danny Danny is an experienced director, writer and actor in all mediums; stage, screen and television. His work as a television director has encompassed everything from drama and documentary to sketch comedy and he is well versed in all types of shooting styles from multi-cam in a studio to single camera on location. He has been nominated and won numerous Chapman Tripp Theatre awards as well as NZ Screen Awards. His most recent theatre work was in January 2011, directing Circa Theatre’s “The Motorcamp” which he co-wrote with fellow Wellington High School student Dave Armstrong. In 2004 and 2005, he directed and produced two comedy series of Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby for TVNZ.  This was also written by Dave and Danny, and was based on their school days at Wellington High School. Recent television credits include directing the TV movie Eruption for TV3, two series of Paradise Cafe and a series of Emu for BBC children’s television. Danny is currently in pre-production for Rage, a large tele-feature for TVNZ about the 1981 Springbok Tour.
1974-78 Dave Armstrong Playwright
 Dave Armstrong Dave Armstrong is a playwright, television writer and columnist. Since leaving Wellington High School he studied music at Victoria University and in Basel, Switzerland and Santa Barbara California. Subsequent employment included working as a professional musician and teacher – he taught for a year at Wellington High School in the mid-1980s. At the same time he started writing for stage and screen. His television credits include Skitz, Shortland Street, Spin Doctors, Spies and Lies, Billy and Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby – the comedy series that he co-created and co-wrote with former Wellington High School student Danny Mulheron.   Dave’s plays include Niu Sila, The Tutor, King and Country, The Motor Camp, Le Sud, and Rita and Douglas. He currently writes a weekly column for the Dominion Post.  His school friends still think the best thing he ever wrote was ‘How we got the Town Belt’ for the 1974 WHS School Magazine.
1978-81 Helen Kelly LLB President NZ Council of Trade Unions
 Helen Kelly Helen Kelly is the president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi (NZCTU).  Helen has been a strong advocate for social justice and workers rights all her life.  After teaching for two and a half years Helen began her long professional involvement with the union movement. Helen opposed the agenda to change industrial relations legislation to reduce worker’s rights and the proposal to introduce bulk funding for teachers salaries.  As assistant secretary of the NZEI in 2000, she saw kindergarten teachers returned to the State Sector after being removed from coverage in 1997.  Helen was instrumental in the campaign for pay parity for early childhood education teachers & was lead advocate when it was won in 2002.  In that same year, Helen was appointed national secretary of the Association of University Staff and led the campaign for improved salaries for university staff. In 2004 she was elected the vice president of the NZCTU and elected president in 2007.  She is the NZCTU’s chief spokesperson on a wide range of issues including economic development, employment law, climate change, social partnership and ACC. Helen leads the NZCTU’s campaigning on pay and employment equity and also co-chairs the Workplace Health and Safety Council. She is responsible for NZCTU international work through the International Trade Union Congress and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Helen is the worker representative to the ILO and is currently worker spokesperson on the economic and social policy committee of the governing body of the ILO.
  1980s  
1986-87 Tom Larkin & 1985-88 Jon Toogood Musicians – Shihad
 Shihad Tom and Jon are the driving force behind the band Shihad.  They showed musical promise from a young age and left school in 1988 with three songs already playing on the radio. Shihad have had phenomenal success and much of it can be attributed to hard work. Since 1988 they have played 1152 live performances all over the world. The band has released 9 albums beginning with Churn in 1993 to Ignite in 2010 and 34 singles from the Dogs are Talking in 1990 to ZM Live Lounge in 2008. Most of the band has been playing together since 1988 and this long established working relationship has helped to make Shihad a household name.
1984-88 Tandi Wright Actor
 Tandi Wright Tandi was a television and film actress and the grand-daughter of past principal Priestley.  After graduating from Toi Whakaari,  Tandi became  Nurse Caroline Buxton in Shortland Street from 1996-1999  –  Tandi is a prolific  actor and has been in many NZ and Australian TV programmes and series which include: Being Eve (2001), Crash Palace, Atlantis High, Willy Nilly, Street Legal and Mercy Peak. In 2004 Wright found herself suffering various indignities on Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. She played the kindhearted teacher who falls for the charms of hypocritical, egotistical counsellor Steve Mudgeway.  Wright has also played small parts in a number of feature films, including the 1992 road movie Absent Without Leave to a role as a mad scientist, in the popular Black Sheep (2006). In 2006 Tandi Wright faced the “extraordinary challenge” of playing a mother caught up in the horrors of the Aramoana killings in Out of the Blue, for which she was nominated for best supporting actress in the 2008 NZ Film and TV Awards. In 2010, she played the role of Callie, the wife of the main character in This Is Not My Life, and as Mandy, Cheryl’s sister in Outrageous Fortune.
1987-88 Rebecca Taylor Fashion Designer
 Rebecca Taylor Rebecca’s Wikipedia entry says she went to St Catherine’s College, but like many Wellingtonians she came to High in the senior years so she could be creative and do fashion design. Rebecca Taylor arrived in NYC after graduating from the Wellington School of design, and has been designing her signature collection since 1996.  The Rebecca Taylor collection is best known for providing the eternally evolving modern girl with fresh, feminine clothing to compliment and refine her individual sense of style.  Through a series of collaborations and partnerships, the collection has grown to offer handbags, shoes, jewellery, eyewear, swim, and a “pink label” collection created exclusively for Rebecca Taylor retail stores. Rebecca Taylor is now distributed in over 40 countries, and 250 cities world-wide with celebrity clientele including Reese Witherspoon, Katherine Heigl, Rachel Bilson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicole Richie, and Vanessa Hudgens, to name a few.  The collection can be found globally in about 500 outposts including better contemporary boutiques, select department stores, leading e-commerce sites, and Rebecca Taylor retail stores in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and a flagship store in Manhattan’s NoLita. Rebecca is an avid supporter of the ASPCA and only uses ethical furs in her collections.  She supports charities such as the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, the North Shore Animal League and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Over the past 13 years, Rebecca Taylor has been featured internationally in numerous leading publications such as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and In-Style.