Famous people who grew up or lived in and around Auckland

Bruce McLaren1937–1958

📍 Upland Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050, New Zealand

I grew up above my father's service station and garage on Upland Road in Remuera, Auckland. My father, Les, had driven petrol tankers before buying the business in 1936, and he was also a…

Colin McCahon1953–1960

📍 McCahon House, 67 Otitori Bay Road, Titirangi, Auckland 0604, New Zealand

I grew up in Dunedin, and as a boy I watched a sign-writer painting letters on a shop window and was entranced by the shapes of words; that sight, and the light over the Otago hills, stayed…

David Lange1977–2005

📍 Māngere, Auckland 2022, New Zealand

I made my home and my political base in Māngere, the South Auckland electorate I represented for nearly three decades — a place of Pacific families, state houses and working people, the…

Jennie2006–2010

📍 Auckland, New Zealand

Jennie Kim grew up in Seoul, an only child, and at about eight she went on a family trip to Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand her mother asked whether she liked it there and whether…

Jonah Lomu1975–1995

📍 Mangere, Auckland, New Zealand

I grew up in Māngere, South Auckland, in a community that was tough and tight-knit — Pacific Island and Māori families living close together, looking after each other's children, finding…

Lorde1996–2014

📍 Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand

Ella Yelich-O'Connor grew up in Devonport and Bayswater, leafy seaside suburbs on Auckland's North Shore, across the harbour from the city. Her mother, Sonja Yelich, is an award-winning…

Lydia Ko2003–2013

📍 North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand

Lydia Ko was born in Seoul in 1997 and moved with her family to Auckland's North Shore when she was four, settling near Lake Pupuke and its golf course. Her parents wanted a calmer life and…

Robert Muldoon1921–1939

📍 Western Springs, Auckland 1022, New Zealand

I grew up in modest circumstances in Auckland, around Western Springs — an only child whose father was lost to illness when I was eight, leaving my mother and my formidable grandmother to…

Russell Crowe1978–1984

📍 Auckland, New Zealand

Russell Crowe was born in Wellington in 1964 and moved to Sydney with his family at four. His parents, Alex and Jocelyn, worked as caterers on film and television sets, and young Russell…

Valerie Adams1984–2002

📍 Māngere, Auckland, New Zealand

Valerie Adams was born in Rotorua in 1984 to Lilika Ngauamo, from Tonga, and Sydney Adams, an Englishman who had many children. Her parents separated when she was small, and she moved with…