On The Up: Māori Shakespearian M’Lago Morris’ life-changing pathway to top US University

• M’Lago Morris has been awarded a four-year, $750,000 scholarship to an elite US university.
• The Whangārei teen is the first Māori to win a Karsh International Scholarship to Duke - ranked the sixth-best university in America.
• Morris is only the second New Zealander to win the coveted scholarship.

The world is a stage for Māori Shakespearian actor Murcie-Lago Morris, who was this week awarded a prestigious scholarship – worth up to $750,000 – to one of America’s top universities.

Known on first-name terms as M’Lago, Morris (Waikato-Tainui, Tūhoe) learned earlier this week he had been awarded a Karsh International Scholarship to Duke University, North Carolina. Duke is ranked the sixth-best university in the United States by US News & World Report rankings for American universities.

The Whangārei teenager is the second New Zealander – behind Ebony Kalin – and the first Māori to win a Karsh Scholarship to Duke.

Morris was one of just 10 successful students from 50,000 applicants worldwide.

M’Lago Morris with director Lee Tamahori. The Whangārei teen acted alongside Guy Pearce in the Tamahori-directed The Convert.

Last year Morris was one of four to be granted a Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship to support his application for admission to a top global university.

In August, the 18-year-old and his wife of 10 months, Charissa, will take up residence at the Duke University campus in Durham, North Carolina.

M'Lago Morris will take up his public policy and theatre studies at Duke University in August.

“I’m still buzzing,” Morris told the Herald.

“It’s still sinking in. I thought I had a chance but you don’t know until you get that confirmation.”

I hope my journey and story inspires more New Zealand students to shoot for the stars.

M'Lago Morris

He said the scholarship money will let him concentrate on learning.

“The scholarship isn’t a set amount of money but is estimated to be around NZ$750,000,” Morris said.

The Whangārei teen is the second ever New Zealander, and first Māori, to win a Karsh International Scholarship to Duke, ranked the sixth-best university in America.

“That will cover my eight semesters (four years of undergraduate study), accommodation for my wife and I, our food, plus it will also cover enrichment funding. That is if I want to experience the world, like go to Paris to study the ballet, I can go use this funding.

“It also covers all the insurances we will need, health, dental and basics.”

Morris has chosen to study public policy and theatre.

He speaks te reo Māori and has appeared in and directed many Shakespearian plays throughout Aotearoa.

While theatre was always on the horizon, marriage wasn’t as clear-cut.

M'Lago Morris and Charissa at his high school graduation. The pair are now married.

“Charissa and I have been married for 10 months. I didn’t expect to find a life partner so early in my life but I knew she was the one and so we got married,” he said.

“She is as thrilled as me to go and I looked at Duke because it was Charissa’s dream school and she has family who live near the North Carolina area.”

Morris’ first name M’Lago is a combination of his Christian names Murcie-Lago – his mum shortened it to M’Lago and it stuck.

“My father has whakapapa to Waikato-Tainui and Tūhoe and Mum is NZ European and American,” Morris said.

He has always been interested in public policy and theatre.

“Theatre and the arts are a way of bringing people’s awareness to societal issues and public policy is the way to address it,” Morris said.

“Theatre should be used not to escape but to expose the issues society is facing – like Māori rights or the Treaty Principles Bill.

My goal is to become a world-renowned stage director bringing Māori and New Zealand culture to theatres and screens around the globe

M'Lago Morris

“I’ve seen gang violence, domestic violence, drug abuse, teen suicide, depression, anxiety – the knock-on effects of colonisation on our rangatahi.

“Through stage and screen, I want to bring a light to this darkness in our culture.

“My ultimate goal is to become a world-renowned stage director bringing Māori and New Zealand culture to theatres and screens around the globe.

“There is a lot I can do for our community by using my skills to communicate the struggles we face with racism, socio-economic hardships, our long rough history with colonisation, substance abuse, physical violence, mental health, and so much more that is affecting our country and more importantly our rangatahi.”

Young Māori Shakespearian actor M'Lago Morris is heading to Duke University.

Morris spent much of his childhood living on a boat in the Bay of Islands, and quotes Shakespeare fluently. He also appeared in Lee Tamahori’s film The Convert.

“I know my parents are proud of me and I’ve got them to thank for who I am today and how I got here,” Morris said.

“I initially saw doing Shakespeare as an opportunity when I was 14 but when I went along to the festival, I saw a group of students directing their own pieces and taking charge of their own creative licences.

“They were commenting on modern society with a play written 400 years ago, and that inspired me.

“Shakespeare plays comment on the human condition and emotion, love, hate, revenge, betrayal – things that are part of our human nature, though the language can be quite difficult.”

In his last years of high school Morris won awards two years running at the Shakespeare Festival in Wellington – the latest his re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Joseph Los’e is an award winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and, prior to joining NZME, worked urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.