April’s professional theatre career began as a company actor with the Four Seasons Theatre in Wanganui in the mid-late 80s. She has a Master’s Degree in Scriptwriting from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. She was the recipient of the Michael Hirschfeld Scholarship for Scriptwriting.

As an actress, April has performed in theatres all over the country. Her TV work includes being part of the core cast of TV’s satirical comedy McPhail & Gadsby for 2 years. Her other television and film credits include Cover Story I & II; The Frighteners; First Impressions; Duggan; The Strip; The Lost Children; The Lovely Bones; Passion in Paradise; Mortal Engines; Girl vs Boy; Eternity, and numerous short films. She has been nominated Best Actress at the Madrid International Film Festival and also at the Short Film Awards in New York (SOFIES) 2017 where she won Best Director and was nominated for Actress, Writer and Film (7 nominations in total). April honed her comedy writing skills as a member of the acclaimed and award-winning Hens’ Teeth female comedy troupe for 10 years and was part of the 2017 comeback season at Circa Theatre. More recently since 2018 she has been a writer/performer in the stage comedy Femme Natale at Bats, Globe, and Suter Theatres.

April has been the recipient of the Playwright’s Association of New Zealand (PANZ) Award for Outstanding Achievement twice (2010 & 2013). She has been a finalist in the SWANZ (NZ Writer’s Guild) awards three times. She has received numerous international awards, accolades, nominations and official selections for her work as a writer/director of short films.