Hamish Mouat

Director / Choreographer

Hamish struggles to imagine a life without Musical Theatre, as it seems to occupy the majority of his time.
He remembers watching his sister through the window of her drama class in Wellington, eagerly awaiting his 5th birthday when he would be old enough to join the group. Since then, Hamish has not only taken on some of the most demanding performance roles in the male Musical Theatre catalogue, but has also worked in nearly all areas of theatre production—from creative, to administration and management.
Hamish has a passion for theatrical education and enriching the lives of young people through the art of theatre. He is proud to have directed, choreographed and mentored thousands of young performers through programmes and productions in New Zealand, America and the UK and feels incredibly lucky to be able to merge his love for theatre with his career.

With an expansive list of over 40 directorial and/or choreographic credits over the past ten years, highlights for Hamish include shows such as ‘Cats’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Les Misérables’, ‘Blood Brothers’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Oliver’, ‘Grease’, ‘Seussical’, and ‘Hairspray’, for which he was awarded Best Choreographer at the iTICKET Showdown Awards.
Hamish currently holds the title of Artistic Director at Kristin School, responsible for directing, choreographing and producing the school’s three major productions each year for students from Kindergarten to Year 13. He is the Resident Choreographer for Junior Theatre New Zealand, and works internationally with the Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network (MET2) in Southern California as an International Staff Director and Guest Artist.

Previously, Hamish worked for five years at the National Youth Theatre Company in a multitude of roles, primarily working as the Choreographer and Company Manager. Through his time, Hamish directed and choreographed up to 300 performers per show on Auckland’s biggest stages and was recognised for significantly raising the standard of production and choreography.
As well as his passion as a director and educator, Hamish is a highly acclaimed performer who holds an ATCL in Musical Theatre with Distinction from Trinity College, London. His portrayal of Bert was praised by the NZ Herald as the “stand out role” in ‘Mary Poppins’ at the Civic Theatre in 2020, and he was awarded Best Guest Actor at the prestigious American National Youth Arts Awards in 2019 for his role of Captain Hook in ‘Peter Pan’ in Los Angeles.

Other performance highlights include the Scarecrow in ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Prince Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’, Peter in ‘Bare: A Pop Opera’, Jack in ‘Into The Woods’, Ensemble in ‘42nd Street’, Judas in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and as the Dance Captain for a One Night Only production of ‘Miss Saigon’ on London’s West End at the Prince Edward Theatre.
Hamish believes that theatre is best when shared, and looks forward to welcoming and inspiring you and your family as part of the Encore Collective.