Xena: Warrior Nutballs

This week, Lou and Shell are heading into the costume department, getting sized up and squeezed into our own leather corsets and miniskirts with the wonderfully talented Kiwi Jane Holland - Costume Designer for Xena: Warrior Princess Seasons 5 and 6! 🧵✂️🪡⚔️💜

 

Jane is responsible for creating some of the most memorable looks in the entire series, including the iconic pregnant Xena costume 🌀(which Jane designed while pregnant herself!), Gabrielle’s later looks 🐯, Athena 👑 (yes! THAT costume, the one that made us all a little gayer!), Xena's daughter Livia, and more. ❤️⚔️🏹

 

But Jane’s Xena story goes even further back. She worked alongside Barbara Darragh, the costume designer who created Xena’s original look, when Xena first appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before helping shape the world we know and love.

 

Jane takes us behind the sewing machines to talk about creating costumes in Aotearoa, and how the people and places of New Zealand informed her work. 🌿🧶🥝

 

We are so honoured to welcome Jane into the Nutball whānau. We ADORE her. She is an absolute joy and sends a whole bunch of aroha back to us Xenites. 🥹💜⚔️

 

Plus, Jane still has some of her original costume drawings tucked away in her archives... which we chat about. ✏️📜👀

 

Tighten your corsets, Xenites. This is a real proper special one. 💜

 

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Come join our whānau! ⚔️💜

This week Lou and Shell go deep behind the scenes as we kōrero with legendary Aotearoa casting director Diana Rowan, who tells us exactly what she saw in Lucy Lawless which made her push for her to become Xena: Warrior Princess. 👀⚔️ AKA that “don’t fuck with me” energy she owns. 💜💪🌶️

Xenites, you might recognise Diana for another reason… she played The Shepherd in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 5, Episode 22, Motherhood! 🐑🏜️

But, Diana’s casting legacy goes WAY beyond Xena - She has been shaping New Zealand's screen industry for decades! Casting countless Kiwi performers, including Michael Hurst as Iolaus in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and is the only casting director in the world to have cast multiple child actors who went on to receive Oscar nominations: Anna Paquin for The Piano (winning at just 11!) and Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider.

We talk about the building blocks of casting the right person for the role, and what it takes to spot a future star before everyone else does. ✨

Whānau, this interview is an absolute one-off, one-of-a-kind. Diana doesn’t do these, so we are bloody thrilled she chose to kōrero with us. 💜 

 

Follow Xena: Warrior Nutballs:
🌐 www.xenawarriornutballs.com 
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xenawarriornutballs/
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317

 

Come join our whānau! ⚔️💜

This week Lou and Shell are welcoming into the whānau Eric Gruendemann - Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, and founder and Managing Director of Pacific Renaissance Pictures!🎬🌿⚔️😮‍💨 

 

Some people think the story of Xena: Warrior Princess begins with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys... but they'd be wrong. The real origin story starts years earlier, when Eric boarded a plane and headed to Aotearoa New Zealand to see if this small country at the bottom of the world could become home to an ambitious new television series.✈️

 

Eric didn't just help make a television show - he helped build an entire industry. 🎬💪 His vision and belief in Aotearoa put New Zealand on the map as a world-class television production destination, paving the way for countless international productions that followed. 

 

Join Shell & Lou as we travel right back to the VERY beginning and hear the incredible story of how one scouting trip changed Aotearoa New Zealand’s television history forever. 🌿✨

 

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This week, Lou and Shell have grown out their beards and donned their muumuus as we welcome into the whānau Timothy Omundson AKA Eli!🧔🏻‍♀️💚🕊️

Yes! That devilishly handsome, charismatic man with the sparkling blue eyes who arrived in Xena and Gabrielle’s lives as a street magician, before becoming one of the most important spiritual figures in the series.🎩🪄🙏

In this episode, Tim talks about connecting with Lucy Lawless, Renée O’Connor, and Kevin Smith, how much he loved working with the Kiwi cast and crew, and getting up to some proper Kiwi antics when the cameras weren't rolling.⛳

And yes… he stole his muumuu.

HE STOLE HIS MUUMUU, YOU GUYS. 😂🤣

We absolutely ADORE this man. Tim is funny, warm, generous and genuinely phenomenal, and we loved hearing his memories of his time in Aotearoa and the people who made Xena so special.

Show notes:

Find Tim on Instagram

📸 Instagram: @omundson

If you'd like to hear about Tim's recovery from his stroke, check out “Tim's 9th Stroke-iversary” on The Psychologists Are In with Maggie Lawson and Timothy Omundson, released 7 May 2026.

🎧 Listen to “Tim's 9th Stroke-iversary” on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/31jzGjgNzD6XsLGlz9NvvC

 

Find Xena: Warrior Nutballs

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xenawarriornutballs/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578930248317 
🌐 www.xenawarriornutballs.com

In this Special Guest Side Quest, Lou gets up close with THE ACTUAL COSTUMES worn by Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor! 🤯⚔️ Getting to head behind the scenes at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, with Stephanie Gibson, Curator of New Zealand Histories and Cultures. 

 

We explore the craftsmanship and artistry behind Xena’s costume, initially designed by Barbara Darragh and reworked by Ngila Dickson, and Gabrielle’s Season 6 outfit, designed by Jane Holland, with props and weapons by Rob Gillies. 🧵✨

 

These aren't just costumes, they're pieces of Aotearoa’s screen history, celebrating the creativity and ingenuity of the people who brought Xena: Warrior Princess to life🎬❤️

 

👉 Xena’s costume: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/765775
👉 Gabrielle’s outfit: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/765776

 

And yes… Lou touches the chakram and absolutely loses her mind a little. 😂😭⚔️

 

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