Kate Rodger is Newshub's Entertainment Editor and Film Reviewer, a job she has adored for over 15 years and which has taken her all over the world covering film premieres and awards ceremonies, visiting movie sets, shooting interviews and filing stories.
Current work
Kate's role with Newshub has had her cross live from the Oscars and the BAFTAs, cover the Cannes, Toronto, Sundance and Doha Film Festivals and several Royal Premieres in London. She has interviewed everyone from Meryl Streep, Keanu Reeves, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, to Jason Bourne, James Bond, Han Solo/Indiana Jones and Captain America.
In this strange new normal of our Covid world Kate now beams the stars directly into her living room, Zoom-interviewing the likes of Angelina Jolie, Dame Helen Mirren and Benedict Cumberbatch. She is the consummate host of live Zoom Q&A's, her highlight being an hour long chat with Eric Bana and the filmmakers behind his hit film The Dry, taking questions from fans watching online.
She has also become a familiar face on The Project desk, Three's flagship 7pm current affairs show.
Previous experience
Kate hosted her own half hour local film show Reel Late with Kate which ran on the TV3 network to excellent ratings and gaining an avid and loyal following.
Kate is a passionate advocate of local film and filmmakers, pushing for mainstream broadcast and digital coverage of New Zealand cinema and has acted as a judge, host and ambassador for several local film competitions, festivals and awards evenings, including the 48Hour Film Festival, Show Me Shorts, Tropfest and the Documentary Edge Festival.
Kate was asked to live-host the red carpet World Premiere of Sir Peter Jackson's third Hobbit film The Battle of the Five Armies from London's Leicester Square, which was live-streamed into over 80 countries world-wide. She was also asked by Disney and the New Zealand Film Commission to MC the œPower of Inclusion two-day summit, with guest key-note Geena Davis. In 2018 she was shocked and stoked to receive the NZMPIC Industry Award for Excellence, honouring her contribution to the film industry in Aotearoa.
Along with her television commitments she has also filed film and travel content for The Australian Women's Weekly, Newshub Travel and Island Time Magazine and has regularly appeared on a cross-section of radio stations including Radio Live, Magic Talk and RNZ. She also co-hosted Newshub's œPost-Credits film podcast.
When she's not on the telly or in a cinema Kate's a full time working mother. Her son has a growing collection of Star Wars memorabilia, courtesy of his nerdy mother. There is no truth to the rumour that 80% of his collection pre-dates his birth by some years.
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Kate Rodger
Kate Rodger is the Newshub Entertainment Reporter and Film Reviewer. Her role takes her all over the world to cover premieres and awards ceremonies where she has interviewed some of the biggest names in film including the likes of Meryl Streep, Robin Williams and Angelina Jolie!Kate Rodger was simply the BEST MC I have ever seen! She effortlessly worked the crowd beforehand to gather injokes and weaved them in to her adlib monologues like a pro. So engaging, down t ... keep reading Ngahuia Group
Kate was a lifesaver coming in at short notice. Where a lesser MC may have struggled, she thrived. Did a truly excellent job, mastered the room and was a huge hit.
Kate was a breath of fresh air, she added a positive relaxed tone to the session. Great feedback from all guests on the event.
Fantastic, very relaxed and relatable. A genuine person and very professional.
Kate was AMAZING and especially after sharing she had basically come more of less straight from a flight from Berlin where she had interviewed Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling. Kate is an exceptional MC and supported the morning flow with seamless transition from one speaker to the next and was in her element interviewing our 2 panels. We loved her style!
Kate was high energy, fun and a delight from the get-go. She really took the time to get to know us and our guests and made our CEO award nominees feel really special. Kate met with our team before the event to chat through particulars, allowing us to clearly define her role and the unique touches we needed her help to execute. We would have no hesitation in using Kate in the role of MC for future events.
Kate was fabulous for our event and I received many comments specifically about how well Kate facilitated the scientific panel sessions. She was very professional and well prepared and managed to keep to the brief. She was also very responsive and communicated well throughout the symposium.
Kate was absolutely awesome. She understood the event and the audience and added great colour and class to the overall event. Her pronunciation of the Maori words was fantastic, her ad-libbing and sense of humour was great. It made it seem like she had been MC'ing the event all week even though we hadn't had one rehearsal! Stress levels were high when Kate first arrived but she soon put us at ease and really carried the show for us. We would definitely recommend Kate and would love to have her involved again.
