Rotorua's Billy T James star

At the moment Tainui Tukiwaho isn't a familiar face on our television screens, but that's about to change for the Rotorua-born actor.

On Sunday he appeared in TV1's drama Tangiwai and this Sunday he plays the legendary comic Billy T James in the television drama Billy.

In a few weeks he has a part in Rage, about the 1981 Springbok rugby tour protests, so New Zealand will get to see a lot more of the actor who can trace his ancestry back to Te Arawa and Tuhoe.

For Tukiwaho, who is from Ngati Rangiteaorere, the role of Billy T James is the biggest of his career.

The drama Billy is the story of New Zealand's legendary entertainer Billy T James. TVNZ said the prime time feature-length drama was based on the biography Billy T, written by Matt Elliott, and was made with the approval of James' widow, Lynn Matthews.

"Twenty years have passed since Billy died at the age of 42 and he still manages to make us laugh," TVNZ said.

"Billy is a love story set in the changing culture of New Zealand in the seventies and eighties."

Although Tukiwaho will be all over the country's television screens in the next few weeks, his passion is for theatre.

He is currently touring the country with the musical play Raising the Titanic, a tribute to Maori show bands of the 1960s.

Tukiwaho is the producer of the play which was written by Albert Belz.

He and Belz wanted to pay homage to talented entertainers such as Sir Howard Morrison, Prince Tui Teka and Billy T James.

"Raising the Titanic is something my mother would like. It has attracted an audience that generally doesn't go to the theatre - they've all been singing along."