Amanda Gillies

There is something about Amanda Gillies’ broad, warm smile that is at once both deeply restorative and thoroughly refreshing. Which is probably why, in 2017, she was shoulder-tapped to front TV3’s The AM Show alongside Duncan Garner and Mark Richardson – Amanda is the soothing, reasonable morning balm to her co-hosts’ controversial staccato banter.

Part of Amanda’s appeal may just be that she has been in New Zealanders’ living rooms for two decades, having started as a journalist with TV3 in 2001.

Her long and varied career has taken her around the world, with concentrated periods in Australasia as the Australia and Pacific Islands news correspondent; as well as working across NewsHub, 3News, Campbell Live, Story, 3rd Degree, 60 Minutes and Nightline.

It has also won her many awards - including the Qantas Award for Best News Reporter for her work on the Victoria bush fires, and a TP McLean Sports Award for Best Feature.

Amanda has covered some of the century’s biggest stories to date; deadly Fijian cyclones and Australian bush fires; the Bali bombings; volcanic eruptions in Tonga; the first murder trial on Norfolk Island and the political elections in Australia and Fiji.

She’s hidden under a mattress in a bathtub in the eye of a deadly cyclone; had a microphone hit out of her hand by an aggrieved international prime minister; held the hand of a bushfire survivor as she returned to her home to find it burned to the ground, and filmed under a volcano that had just erupted.

The natural disasters she has covered - their increased frequency, size and power - have prompted a real interest in climate change; the science behind it, the effect, the future and the fall-out; she is a self-professed “weather nut.”

But it hasn’t all been all dramatics and disaster - Amanda covered the first-ever New Zealand Fashion Week for Nightline, from which sprung a genuine love for fashion. She also very much embraces recycled and eco-friendly clothes.

Amanda also regularly MCs events across the country, including the Gisborne Wearable Arts Awards; the NZ Radio Awards, and the Foster Hope Fundraiser events, a cause close to her heart, for which she is an ambassador.

In Amanda’s spare time – because you can take the girl out of Gissie, but not Gissie out of the girl - she loves being at the beach; and travelling to experience new cultures. Her secret passion is dancing and theatre – you’ll find Amanda watching every dancing series on TV and attending every show that comes to town!


VOICE STYLE: Brand. Narrative. Warm. Elegant.


TESTIMONIALS

Amanda is a brilliant MC. Capable, calm, curious and always in control of both the topic and her audience.
-CHORUS

Amanda was amazing, everyone loved having her - she is such a delight to work with! Big thanks from us!!
-Uno Loco