What now for Stacey Daniels?

By LOUISA CLEAVE

Stacey Daniels is never backward at coming forward. She has spent more than 10 years in television, starting out as a part-time presenter on What Now?, and is still going strong with a new prime-time show.

Daniels, 28, once shared her thoughts about a story printed in this magazine about another presenter, Francesca Rudkin, moving from the youth arena into primetime presenting.

The story mentioned that some people would question why Rudkin had not been moved from youth television to "grown-up" telly sooner.

Daniels asked why people thought youth TV was only for presenters doing their apprenticeship and "that moving into primetime is when you hit the big time".

Daniels believed that being a youth presenter can be even more important than adult TV because the audience is so impressionable, receptive and important.

She is still crazy about youth television but is also about to present her first prime-time show called, interestingly, The Big Time.

The docu-soap profiles three families who will perform in a TV2 celebrity Christmas entertainment special.

Daniels will put the families through their paces to prepare them for the Big Time Celebrity Christmas show and then host it, alongside Jay Laga'aia.

The three-part series will also follow the progress of TV2 personalities working on their contributions to the special — a PG-rated male revue and a female band.

Dare we ask Daniels if this is the big time, the big step into a permanent primetime position where mass audience attention can reap rewards, like better service at restaurants and a higher salary?

"I've been outside prime time for so long that you could look at it like [a step up]. But I guess the progression has been that I did Treasure Island, 10 days out of 10 years. That was probably the most high-profile thing I've done. And then I did the Girlfriend Model Search.

"For sure, I haven't presented many things in prime time but I've been in telly for 10 years so if more people are going to see it I feel quite comfortable with that."

Daniels still has a connection to youth and says she could never change that. The Big Time brings another element of interest, performance, to her television work.

She is excited by the return to television of entertainment programmes which can give talented New Zealanders a break into the industry.

"I know a lot of people who want to get into TV and the doors seem shut, so these are opportunities for people who feel there aren't any at the moment.

"If it makes people who are already in the business watch their backs then that's a good thing. Everyone needs to have the bar put up a little bit. If you're secure enough and good enough you'll be all right."

The Big Time will be the culmination of a diverse range of career projects for Daniels over the past year.

She went to Italy to report for Mai FM and Mai Time on the New Zealand kapa haka group, Pounamu Kai Tahu, exhibiting at the prestigious Venice Biennale.

After the festival, Daniels flew home to her first acting job, appearing opposite Taungaroa Emile (Once Were Warriors, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?) in one of six, half-hour Maori love stories being made for television.

From there it was straight into Celebrity Treasure Island, where Daniels went from pretending to be someone else to being herself and "getting back to the bare bones of your personality that you didn't even know you had".

The usually up-front Daniels found herself taking a different approach to the reality series by sitting back and observing the process.

"Even though I'm used to having cameras around it was totally different when you're just doing things and aware the camera is there. Overall, it was an awesome experience. I've been a lot more adventurous in my eating since I got back and I've taken up kick-boxing to keep up my fitness."

Daniels is also part of the successful Mai FM breakfast team, the top radio station for 10 to 24-year-olds in Auckland and second in the city behind Paul Holmes' breakfast show on Newstalk ZB.

Somehow, with all this work on her hands, Daniels found time to further her Maori language studies through total immersion courses at Christchurch Polytechnic.

She flew to Christchurch two weekends a month between May and September to study alongside her dad at the polytechnic's marae.

"More than a certificate, what I wanted was a certain conversational fluency and that's been noted by people whose opinion I really care about."

Daniels would like to have some involvement in the new Maori television service due to go to air next July but says it is important to continue working in mainstream television.

She believes in the correct pronunciation of Maori words and place names in broadcasting and says there is a professional duty to get it right.

"I hope there are things I have to offer [the Maori channel], but I also see that it's important for Maori to be in the mainstream and be seen in that forum. It's important for our kids to see that we can do both. And also for Maori pronunciation to be correct and normal in a mainstream environment."

With a decade of presenting, producing, directing and researching in the television industry under her belt it is little wonder Daniels has "strong possibilities" for next year.

She is not ready to reveal them yet, but says she would like to explore other acting opportunities, and writing.

"Basically, there are so many possibilities. I have to focus on what I want to do because there are so many things I'm interested in.

"At this particular time, presenting is a pretty good gig and it's working well for me. But it's good to feel that I have options."