Olivia Tennet

Career

Tennet began taking dance lessons at the age of four years following her older sister into dance, eventually stumbling into acting three years later She made her first major television appearance in the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess as the runaway Princess Alesia in the episode "If The Shoe Fits...".

Eventually, Tennet made her way into films. She went on to win the "Best Juvenile Performer" award at the Nokia New Zealand Film and TV Awards in 2000, for her role as Nicole Mitchell in Kids World. She also appeared in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as Freda, a young girl of Rohan. She then won "Best Actress" at the Drifting Clouds Short Film Festival for her outstanding performance in the short film Watermark, beating the other adult nominees. The film won "Best Film" at the same awards.

Following this, Tennet became part of the core cast for Maddigan's Quest (2006) as the bratty circus performer Lilith. She would then gain her biggest television role to date as Tuesday Warner on Shortland Street, becoming part of the core cast for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. After her time on that show ended, she portrayed the role of teenage genius Dr. K on Power Rangers RPM, the seventeenth season of the Power Rangers series which premiered in March 2009.

Around this time, Tennet competed in the "Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competition" with classmate Phoebe Mason (Epsom Girls Grammar School Drama Leader 2008) and did quite well, winning four of fifteen awards. The 5 minute performance included various scenes from Macbeth. Tennet and Mason won a trip to the Globe Theatre in London, July 2009.

Since her appearance on Power Rangers RPM, Tennet has participated in various television shows and theatrical productions in New Zealand. She played the role of nurse Lynne in an Auckland Theatre Company production of Stepping Out in June 2010, followed by the role of the Siren Queen for the Wet Hot Beauties' water ballet show titled Sirens for the Auckland Fringe Festival in February 2011. She also helped choreograph the show.

Later on, Tennet made a television appearance in an episode of The Almighty Johnsons as Delphine in March 2011. She also took the stage as Emilia in Peach Theatre Company's production of Othello in July 2011. She then took on the role of Dorothy in a major theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz based on the 1987 musical produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Civic Theatre in September 2011, earning positive reviews for her portrayal of the character.

Before leaving for the United States, her latest television appearance has been on the miniseries Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud as Julie Theilman, a courier working for Terry Clark of the Mr. Asia drug syndicate.

After wrapping up on The Wizard of Oz, Tennet moved to the United States to film a low-budget independent feature film titled Blood Punch which also featured many of her co-stars from Power Rangers RPM. The film premiered at the 20th Austin Film Festival in late October 2013 has won many awards and honors in the film festival circuit. While in the United States, she has performed several small screen and voiceover work before moving back to New Zealand shortly before Blood Punch premiered.

After moving back to New Zealand, Tennet appeared in the miniseries When We Go To War and the joint Australia-New Zealand TV series 800 Words, along with various stage credits. She has been producing her own series of dance videos titled Dancing in Small Spaces on YouTube and Vimeo.

Personal life

Tennet was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Along with her older sister Emma, Tennet also has an older brother, Anton Tennet, who is also an actor based in Melbourne, Australia.

While living in Los Angeles, California, she married fellow New Zealand actor Milo Cawthorne, with whom she has worked several times in the past, most notably on Power Rangers RPM and more recently on Blood Punch. The couple had been living together in Los Angeles since late 2011 before moving back to New Zealand in late 2013 to begin rehearsals for the Auckland production of 360: A Theatre of Recollections (2014). As of June 2016, the couple had split up.

Tennet graduated from the Epsom Girls Grammar School in 2008 shortly before appearing on Power Rangers RPM. In 2015 she was attending university in Auckland, studying speech therapy, along with working in commercial dance.

In a recent interview, Tennet mentioned that she keeps her personal life private, so as to keep her performances as believable as possible.