Biografia

In 2004, at 13 she became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.

During an interview with Jay Leno, she confessed she didn't know how to swim when she was cast in La ragazza delle balene (2002).

Has been learning Maori dances since she was 6.

First Indigenous performer to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

Discovered by the same agent who discovered Anna Paquin.

I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I'm actually awake. The Oscars are so big -- they're huge ... I'm totally humbled and ecstatic. No words are enough to explain ... it's like, wow. It's absolutely incredible. - after finding out about her Academy Award nomination

[on being asked if acting what how she expected it to be] "Definitely not what I expected it to be. All I ever saw were famous people getting what they wanted when they wanted it and I was shocked at the fact that I actually had to work."

[on Whale Rider] "Watching that film made me proud to be a New Zealander."

[on whether she wants to be an actor when she's older] "I want to be a science teacher. My friends asked me why, but I'm intrigued by it and I'm quite good at science at school."

I'd always wanted to act but it wasn't just that, it was because all the ladies wore pretty dresses.