We were thrilled to hear that Prime’s Dana Youngman won the Diversity category of the New Zealand Women of Influence Award. In a moving speech Dana paid tribute to her two grandmothers, her 'ultimate women of influence' as well as her Mum and Dad, her family and her colleagues at Prime and Sky TV.
Dana is a leader in the New Zealand television industry and a champion for her beloved Pasifika community, producing, directing and now commissioning award-winning content that truly shifts the dial. She won from an impressive field of finalists who are all doing great things to promote diversity and inclusion in their fields of work.
In her role at Sky, Dana has secured long-running news show Tagata Pasifika its first ever primetime viewing and commissioned several NZ firsts - Pasifika-made drama series Teine Sa, Chinese bilingual drama Inked along with a Pakistani-Iranian comedy Raised by Refugees.
In earlier years, Dana produced New Zealand’s first Pasifika documentary for primetime television – Life After Footy, Legends of the Pacific. This was the first Pasifika-made content to be nominated for an NZ TV Award in the Best Sports TV category. Previously, at TVNZ, Dana created the first children’s Pasifika animation series, Legendary Polynesia and co-created TVNZ’s first bilingual Māori lifestyle series, Whānau Living.
Dana is one of three New Zealand members of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys) and she commissioned the 2021 International Emmy Award-winning series INSiDE.