Biographies - 11.07.2023

Troy Kingi

Troy Kingi (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) is an actor and an multi-award-winning, multi-genre musician originally from Rotorua and Te Kaha. A small-town boy at heart, Kingi is now based in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, where he lives a simple life with his wife and five children.

Described by the New Zealand Music Commission as “Our Northland Treasure”, Kingi rose to fame after the release of his first two multi-award-winning albums ‘Guitar Party at Uncles Bach’ and ‘Shake That Skinny Ass All the Way to Zygertron’, along with memorable major roles in Kiwi films including ‘Hunt For The Wilderpeople’, ‘The Pā Boys’, 'Mt Zion’ and ‘The Breaker Upperers’.

Over and above his love for acting, Kingi’s passion for music has led to a successful and ever-expanding artistic career. A hard task master on his own creativity, Troy is at the mid-point of his aspirational 10 10 10 Series (releasing 10 albums in 10 genres in 10 years). He is a prolific song-writer and serial collaborator, with voracious capacity and freakish efficiency. He is also an experienced teacher with an affinity for empowering the young, having been a New Zealand Music Commission mentor since 2015, working with high school students across Aotearoa, as well as a mentor on ‘Songs From the Inside’, a TV series aimed at rehabilitating inmates through song-writing.

His third album, ‘Holy Colony Burning Acres’ - a hard-hitting deep roots-reggae album focused on major issues facing indigenous peoples around the world and “a strong political bent”, won the prestigious 2020 Taite Music Prize, and a nomination for the coveted Silver Scroll Award for 'Mighty Invader’. The album also earned Kingi two awards at the 2019 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards – Best Roots Album, and for a second consecutive year, Best Māori Artist. Kingi’s fourth album, ‘The Ghost of Freddie Cesar’ is inspired by memories of his father who disappeared fifteen years ago, 70s funk and the music and stories of Freddie Cesar – an exceptional yet relatively unknown African-American funk musician.

His latest album, ‘Black Sea Golden Ladder’ is a collaboration with award-winning singer/songwriter and producer Delaney Davidson. A folk/songwriter music compilation documenting the life cycle of humankind. Kingi is the 2020 recipient of the Mātairangi Mahi Toi Māori Artist Residency at Government House, a partnership between the Office of the Governor General of New Zealand and Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts at Massey University Wellington.

Awards & Nominations

2022 AMA Best Folk Artist Winner

2022 Taite Music Prize Top 10 Finalist for Black Sea Golden Ladder

2021 Silver Scroll Award Winner for All Your Ships Have Sailed

2021 Taite Music Prize Top 10 Finalist for The Ghost of Freddie Cesar

2020 Silver Scroll Awards Top 5 Finalist for Mighty Invader

2020 Taite Music Prize Winner for Holy Colony Burning Acres

2019 VNZMA Best Māori Artist Winner

2019 VNZMA Best Roots Artist Winner

2018 Silver Scroll Awards Top 5 Finalist for Aztechknowledgey

2018 WMMA Best Māori Pop Album Winner for Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way to Zygertron

2018 WMMA Best Māori Artist Winner

2018 VNZMA Best Soul/R&B Artist Winner

2017 WMMA Māori Male Solo Artist Winner for Guitar Party at Uncles Bach

2017 WMMA Best Māori Pop Album Winner for Guitar Party