A well-known face of stage and screen, Jennifer Ward-Lealand is finding herself increasingly busy behind the camera in recent years. In 2018, Ward-Lealand began training as an intimacy coordinator under industry leader Ita O’Brien (Normal People, I May Destroy You, Master of None, Vikings), and became fully accredited in 2021.
Intimacy coordinators ensure the well-being of actors undertaking sex scenes or other intimate scenes for theatre, film and television, and it’s a growing field in the post #metoo era.
On top of that, Ward-Lealand has been busy directing Grand Horizons, which is running an encore season 17-29 May at Auckland Theatre Company, and directed her first short film Disrupt, about the effects of methamphetamine on several generations of whānau.