Karyn Hay

Role: MC

Karyn Hay ONZM is an acclaimed New Zealand author and broadcaster who first became a household name in the early 1980s as the presenter of the influential music television show Radio with Pictures.

Beginning her career as a Radio New Zealand cadet, Karyn has gone on to work across radio, television and publishing as a broadcaster, columnist, producer and director. She has also served as General Manager of Kiwi FM.

Alongside her broadcasting career, Karyn is an award-winning novelist. Her debut novel Emerald Budgies, written while living aboard a canal boat in England, won the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her second novel, The March of the Foxgloves, reached number one on the New Zealand fiction bestseller list.

Karyn is a Frank Sargeson Fellow, a former Writer in Residence at the Michael King Writers Centre, and a member of both the New Zealand Society of Authors and the Academy of New Zealand Literature. In 2022 she received the Independent Spirit Award at the Taite Music Prize for her contribution to television and radio.

As a speaker and MC, Karyn brings decades of broadcasting experience, sharp insight and a natural storytelling ability that engages audiences across literature, media and culture.

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