Biography
Riwia Brown ONZM is a New Zealand playwright and screenwriter. She wrote the screenplay for the 1994 film Once Were Warriors, an adaptation of Alan Duff's novel that won the Best Screenplay award at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. She was also a co-writer on the 2003 film The Legend of Johnny Lingo.
Born in 1957 in Wellington, Brown is of Māori descent and affiliates to the Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Taranaki iwi. She began working in theatre in the 1980s and has written plays including Roimata (1988) and Nga Wahine (1997), several of which have been adapted for television. In 2001 she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to theatre and film.
