Island Roots, Auckland Ways: Alex King on ‘running away’ from entertainment industry

Former radio host Alex King is working on something new these days. Photo / Peter Meecham

The daughter of comedian and mental health advocate Mike King has avoided following in his footsteps.

“I’d grown up seeing the really good sides and really bad sides,” Alex King says.

The former radio host and singer has shared with the Island Roots, Auckland Ways podcast this week about what life was like for her and growing up as her famous dad’s daughter.

“I’d seen what [the industry] does when it swallows someone whole and spits them out.”

The former Flava and Mai FM host said she had initially enrolled to study law in Wellington; before she eventually found her way back to the performing arts.

“I was constantly in the performing arts centre - that’s where I lived,” she said.

“I was doing jazz band, I was doing kapa haka. I was doing everything other than educational things.”

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King left the law degree and enrolled into acting school; where she rekindled a childhood love for performing.

King later moved from acting school to Flava, where she hosted the radio station’s workday slot.

A new project - learning te reo

She said she never wanted an on-air role and expected that she would be handing out prizes on the street.

Since then, she has left radio altogether. She has appeared on Celebrity Treasure Island alongside her dad and has her eye on an overseas acting pursuit.

Alex and Mike King on Celebrity Treasure Island. Photo / TVNZ

King also shared about what she described as her most personal project yet - reclaiming her te reo Māori.

“I am trying and girl, it is hard.”

While at school, she felt that the reo Māori elective class at her mostly Pākehā boarding school was not valued.

“There was a language floor - it had Spanish, French [and] Latin. They were all beautiful classrooms with big bay windows and just so nice.

“The Māori classroom was on the bottom floor by the tech rooms. We used to call it the Harry Potter cupboard because that’s what it felt like.”

In the famous Harry Potter series, the young boy lives in the cupboard under the stairs of his aunt and uncle’s house.

Her te reo journey did not come easy, however. Throughout her early 20s, King said she did not feel worthy of learning te reo.

“People had kind of put me in a box - she’s brown on the outside, but she’s palagi on the inside. I was like: ‘If you’re gonna put me in that box, I’m gonna live it’.

“I’m flourishing more into my authentic journey and who I was always meant to be.”

Island Roots, Auckland Ways can be heard on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.