Xena: Warrior Nutballs

🚨 Important Episode Update: 🚨 Whānau, our Sir Richard Taylor episode went live with a track out of order, making parts of the kōrero super confusing. So sorry if you caught that version, it sounded like Dahak or Sauron got in the edit! 😬

We've fixed the audio - if you downloaded it before the fix, please delete your copy and download it again.

Thanks for bearing with us whānau! ⚔️💜...now on with the podcast!

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🏆 This week, Lou and Shell are chatting with Sir Richard Taylor (KNZM), Co-founder and Creative Director of Wētā Workshop, a five-time Academy Award winner! 🧌⚔️

Based in Wellington, Wētā Workshop is an award-winning special effects and creative company who have worked on some of the biggest franchises in the world, including The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Dune, Star Wars, DC, Indiana Jones, and Avatar🎬

Richard takes us back to his work on Xena: Warrior Princess, sharing stories of working with Lucy Lawless before she was cast as Xena, his admiration for Renée O’Connor as Gabrielle, and the challenge of bringing centaurs and even centaur babies to life! 🐎👶

Plus, we chat about how the opportunity to work on Xena helped pave the way for Wētā Workshop’s future success with The Lord of the Rings. Turns out, the road to Middle-earth had a few stops in ancient Greece! 🗡️💍

Join Lou and Shell as we chat with Sir Richard about the creatures, creativity and connections which helped shape Aotearoa’s screen industry, and the legacy of a little Kiwi ingenuity that went a very long way. 🧙‍♂️✨

🎧 Follow Xena: Warrior Nutballs

🌐 Website: https://www.xenawarriornutballs.com/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xenawarriornutballs/

💜 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317

🛠️ Find out more about Wētā Workshop

🌐 Website: https://www.wetaworkshop.com/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wetaworkshop/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WetaWorkshop/

Vote for "Xena: Warrior Nutballs" in the New Zealand Podcasting Awards - Listeners Choice Category:

https://www.nzpodcastawards.com/nominate 

🚨 Rerelease!🚨 Thanks for bearing with us whānau! ⚔️💜...now on with the podcast!

___

🏆 This week, Lou and Shell are chatting with Sir Richard Taylor (KNZM), Co-founder and Creative Director of Wētā Workshop, a five-time Academy Award winner! 🧌⚔️

Based in Wellington, Wētā Workshop is an award-winning special effects and creative company who have worked on some of the biggest franchises in the world, including The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Dune, Star Wars, DC, Indiana Jones, and Avatar🎬

Richard takes us back to his work on Xena: Warrior Princess, sharing stories of working with Lucy Lawless before she was cast as Xena, his admiration for Renée O’Connor as Gabrielle, and the challenge of bringing centaurs and even centaur babies to life! 🐎👶

Plus, we chat about how the opportunity to work on Xena helped pave the way for Wētā Workshop’s future success with The Lord of the Rings. Turns out, the road to Middle-earth had a few stops in ancient Greece! 🗡️💍

Join Lou and Shell as we chat with Sir Richard about the creatures, creativity and connections which helped shape Aotearoa’s screen industry, and the legacy of a little Kiwi ingenuity that went a very long way. 🧙‍♂️✨

🎧 Follow Xena: Warrior Nutballs

🌐 Website: https://www.xenawarriornutballs.com/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xenawarriornutballs/

💜 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317

🛠️ Find out more about Wētā Workshop

🌐 Website: https://www.wetaworkshop.com/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wetaworkshop/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WetaWorkshop/

Vote for "Xena: Warrior Nutballs" in the New Zealand Podcasting Awards - Listeners Choice Category:

https://www.nzpodcastawards.com/nominate 

This week, Lou and Shell are heading into the costume department, getting sized up and squeezed into our own leather corsets and miniskirts with the wonderfully talented Kiwi Jane Holland - Costume Designer for Xena: Warrior Princess Seasons 5 and 6! 🧵✂️🪡⚔️💜

Jane is responsible for creating some of the most memorable looks in the entire series, including the iconic pregnant Xena costume 🌀(which Jane designed while pregnant herself!), Gabrielle’s later looks 🐯, Athena 👑 (yes! THAT costume, the one that made us all a little gayer!), Xena's daughter Livia, and more. ❤️⚔️🏹

But Jane’s Xena story goes even further back. She worked alongside Barbara Darragh, the costume designer who created Xena’s original look, when Xena first appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before helping shape the world we know and love.

Jane takes us behind the sewing machines to talk about creating costumes in Aotearoa, and how the people and places of New Zealand informed her work. 🌿🧶🥝

We are so honoured to welcome Jane into the Nutball whānau. We ADORE her. She is an absolute joy and sends a whole bunch of aroha back to us Xenites. 🥹💜⚔️

Plus, Jane still has some of her original costume drawings tucked away in her archives... which we chat about. ✏️📜👀

Tighten your corsets, Xenites. This is a real proper special one. 💜

Come join our whānau! ⚔️💜 Follow Xena: Warrior Nutballs:

This week Lou and Shell go deep behind the scenes as we kōrero with legendary Aotearoa casting director Diana Rowan, who tells us exactly what she saw in Lucy Lawless which made her push for her to become Xena: Warrior Princess. 👀⚔️ AKA that “don’t fuck with me” energy she owns. 💜💪🌶️

Xenites, you might recognise Diana for another reason… she played The Shepherd in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 5, Episode 22, Motherhood! 🐑🏜️

But, Diana’s casting legacy goes WAY beyond Xena - She has been shaping New Zealand's screen industry for decades! Casting countless Kiwi performers, including Michael Hurst as Iolaus in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and is the only casting director in the world to have cast multiple child actors who went on to receive Oscar nominations: Anna Paquin for The Piano (winning at just 11!) and Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider.

We talk about the building blocks of casting the right person for the role, and what it takes to spot a future star before everyone else does. ✨

Whānau, this interview is an absolute one-off, one-of-a-kind. Diana doesn’t do these, so we are bloody thrilled she chose to kōrero with us. 💜 

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Come join our whānau! ⚔️💜

This week Lou and Shell are welcoming into the whānau Eric Gruendemann - Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, and founder and Managing Director of Pacific Renaissance Pictures!🎬🌿⚔️😮‍💨 

Some people think the story of Xena: Warrior Princess begins with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys... but they'd be wrong. The real origin story starts years earlier, when Eric boarded a plane and headed to Aotearoa New Zealand to see if this small country at the bottom of the world could become home to an ambitious new television series.✈️

Eric didn't just help make a television show - he helped build an entire industry. 🎬💪 His vision and belief in Aotearoa put New Zealand on the map as a world-class television production destination, paving the way for countless international productions that followed. 

Join Shell & Lou as we travel right back to the VERY beginning and hear the incredible story of how one scouting trip changed Aotearoa New Zealand’s television history forever. 🌿✨

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🌐 Website: https://xenawarriornutballs.com

This week, Lou and Shell have grown out their beards and donned their muumuus as we welcome into the whānau Timothy Omundson AKA Eli!🧔🏻‍♀️💚🕊️

Yes! That devilishly handsome, charismatic man with the sparkling blue eyes who arrived in Xena and Gabrielle’s lives as a street magician, before becoming one of the most important spiritual figures in the series.🎩🪄🙏

In this episode, Tim talks about connecting with Lucy Lawless, Renée O’Connor, and Kevin Smith, how much he loved working with the Kiwi cast and crew, and getting up to some proper Kiwi antics when the cameras weren't rolling.⛳

And yes… he stole his muumuu.

HE STOLE HIS MUUMUU, YOU GUYS. 😂🤣

We absolutely ADORE this man. Tim is funny, warm, generous and genuinely phenomenal, and we loved hearing his memories of his time in Aotearoa and the people who made Xena so special.

Show notes:

📸 Instagram: @omundson

If you'd like to hear about Tim's recovery from his stroke, check out “Tim's 9th Stroke-iversary” on The Psychologists Are In with Maggie Lawson and Timothy Omundson, released 7 May 2026.

🎧 Listen to “Tim's 9th Stroke-iversary” on Spotify:

Find Xena: Warrior Nutballs

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xenawarriornutballs/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317 

In this Special Guest Side Quest, Lou gets up close with THE ACTUAL COSTUMES worn by Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor! 🤯⚔️ Getting to head behind the scenes at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, with Stephanie Gibson, Curator of New Zealand Histories and Cultures. 

We explore the craftsmanship and artistry behind Xena’s costume, initially designed by Barbara Darragh and reworked by Ngila Dickson, and Gabrielle’s Season 6 outfit, designed by Jane Holland, with props and weapons by Rob Gillies. 🧵✨

These aren't just costumes, they're pieces of Aotearoa’s screen history, celebrating the creativity and ingenuity of the people who brought Xena: Warrior Princess to life🎬❤️

👉 Xena’s costume: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/765775

And yes… Lou touches the chakram and absolutely loses her mind a little. 😂😭⚔️

🌿 www.xenawarriornutballs.com

This week Lou and Shell talk with Rob Gillies, the Kiwi Production Designer on Xena: Warrior Princess⚒️🛡️🏛️⚔️ From the depths of Tartarus to the Elysian Fields, and everything in between, if you could see it in the Hercules and Xena universe, chances are Rob Gillies and his team built it. 📐⚒️🎨🖋️💪

As Production Designer across Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Young Hercules, Rob transformed parts of West Auckland into the ancient world - creating everything from taverns, castles, Amazon villages, temples, palaces, and  that big ol' boat! 🍻⛵🏰🏹👑 These sets made the Xenaverse unforgettable! His team also crafted some of the franchise's most iconic props, including Xena's sword and chakram, along with Gabrielle's staff and sais. ⚔️

🎙️ Join us as Rob takes us behind the scenes of one of television's most ambitious fantasy worlds, sharing the craftsmanship, unforgettable behind-the-scenes stories, and Kiwi creativity that brought the Xenaverse to life. We also chat about his love for the gloriously nutty sets like in Prometheus, which he affectionately dubs "The Super Egg Men."🦅⛓️🥚😂

This interview is a true celebration of the early 90’s hard yakka in Aotearoa and what it took behind-the-scenes to create the cult classic hero of Xena!

💙 Follow Xena: Warrior Nutballs for more interviews with the Kiwi and Aussie cast and crew who brought the Xenaverse to life!

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317

This week, Lou and Shell climb the steps to Mount Olympus and enter the throne room with Paris Jefferson AKA Athena! 🦉⚔️👑

Paris joins us to look back on her unforgettable turn as Athena, the Goddess of Warfare, Wisdom, and don't forget Weaving! ⚔️🦉🧵 She shares what it was like arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand to join Xena: Warrior Princess for Season 5, stepping into one of Greek mythology's most iconic roles at the height of the series.

We also dive into Athena as a canonically queer character in '90s television 🌈💜. Paris talks about how clear it was to her that Athena loved Ilainus, and why embracing that relationship felt completely natural in her performance.⚡

Paris shares what it was like wearing the breathtaking costumes created by the brilliant Jane Holland ✨💛, bringing Athena's regal presence to life with every shimmering detail.

Plus, she reflects on working alongside the late Kevin Smith ❤️, Lucy Lawless ⚔️, and Renée O'Connor 🥰, sharing behind-the-scenes stories about the warmth, talent, and camaraderie that made Xena the phenomenon we Xenites know and love.

Whether you've loved Xena for decades or are discovering it for the first time, this episode is packed with nostalgia, laughter, behind-the-scenes stories, as well as, the usual plots lost Nutball foolishness from Lou and Shell as they fangirl out over one of the greats, ATHENA! 🏛️✨⚡

💛 Follow Paris Jefferson

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This week we're extending our whānau again! 💜🌿Shell and Lou are donning our fedoras 🤠, dusting off our typewriters 📝, and heading into the Xena: Warrior Princess writers' room with one of the most influential creative forces behind the show ✨ Steven L. Sears ✨

As a writer and producer on Xena, Steven helped shape some of the series' most iconic stories, shaping Gabrielle’s hero's journey, and contributing to 100 episodes! ⚔️📜❤️

Join us as we talk all things Xena ⚔️🏹 from the non-negotiables the writers had to navigate for her character ✍️✨, to the risks he was willing to take in the scripts, knowing he had a world-class crew of Kiwis and Aussies down in Aotearoa New Zealand ready to bring it all to life 🎬🌟

Steven has long been a friend and ally to the LGBTQIA+ community, and it was an absolute privilege to welcome him into the Xena: Warrior Nutballs whānau. 💜⚔️

Penny from Xenite Retreat also cameos - giving us the low down on what Steven is REALLY like…AKA he is a bloody legend!

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

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