Jackie and Madeleine

Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami are a multi-talented writing and directing duo hailing from New Zealand, sharing a sense of humor and creative chemistry that fuels their work across film, television, and commercials. They wrote, directed, and starred in their feature debut The Breaker Upperers, a romantic comedy that was executive produced by Taika Waititi, premiered at SXSW 2018, and was released internationally by Netflix. The success of The Breaker Upperers led the duo to be named as TimeOut NZ’s Entertainers of the Year in 2018.

Jackie and Madeleine first met as teenagers doing improv comedy in New Zealand, and began their careers as actors. They both appeared in Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s cult classic 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows; Jackie has since gone on to direct multiple episodes on its two television spinoffs, Wellington Paranormal and the FX series What We Do in the Shadows. They’ve also collaborated on New Zealand’s hit sketch comedy series Funny Girls, also starring Rose Matafeo. The pair is currently developing another feature film project for Netflix, Hope, starring Aubrey Plaza.