Bret McKenzie, Wellington, ONZM, for services to music and film
Mr Bret McKenzie won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in March 2012 for ‘Man or Muppet’, which he wrote for the 2011 ‘Muppets’ movie. He was also Music Supervisor of the ‘Muppets’ movie. He wrote four of the five original songs on the movie. He is also one half of the Flight of the Conchords, the internationally successful musical-comedy duo, along with Jemaine Clement. The Flight of the Conchords won a Grammy Award in 2007 for their CD ‘The Distant Future’. They appeared on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ and had a critically acclaimed two-season 12-part show on HBO in the United States. Mr McKenzie appeared in 'The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. He was in various Wellington bands, including the ‘Black Seeds’. He is one of the lead actors in a New Zealand feature film, ‘Two Little Boys’, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and will be released in New Zealand late in 2012.