Stronger Than She Thought, Softer Than She Knew: Shonee Samia

Shonee Samia on Surviving, Lifting and Building the Pasifika Marvel

There's a moment in every powerlifting meet where the room goes quiet, the chalk dust hangs in the air, and it's just you and the bar. . .

and the bar, as my cousin Shonee likes to say, does not care how you feel. You either lift it or you don't.

Shonee Samia is family — she's my cuzzy, and having her on the show felt less like an interview and more like one of those long kitchen-table conversations you get at a family gathering, the kind where somebody says something at eleven o'clock at night that you're still thinking about a week later. Except this time the cameras were on, and I'm glad they were, because her story deserves to be heard far beyond our whanau.

Here's the short version, though no version of Shonee's life stays short. She taught herself to code at six years old because her grandfather kept buying the latest technology, had no idea how to use any of it, and kept getting hacked. Somebody had to sort it out, and in her family, that somebody was a small girl who just decided she could. That little girl grew up to become a senior lead engineer on Star Wars Jedi Survivor — one of the biggest games in the world — usually the only Pasifika person in the room, and often the only woman. She's also an actor. A stunt performer. A national deadlift record holder. And the founder of Mana Film Productions, the only Pasifika film production company in Queensland, recently crowned Gold Coast Screen Professional of the Year.

WATCH THE LIVE INTERVIEW ON YOU TUBE

But none of those titles is the reason this conversation stayed with Amber and me. The reason is what happened in her early twenties, when Shonee survived two brain tumours — and came out the other side with a completely different relationship with time. She told us that when you go through something that serious that young, you stop being willing to waste your life on things you don't care about. A lot of people are alive, she said. But are they really living? Sitting across from her, you can feel that this isn't a quote she read somewhere. It's the operating system she runs on.

What struck me most was what she said surviving taught her about strength. You'd expect the deadlift champion to talk about pushing through, and she can — that's the bar that doesn't care how you feel. But she talked just as much about the other half: that she discovered she was stronger than she thought, and also softer than she thought. That strength is sometimes asking for help. Resting. Praying. Letting people love you through the hard parts. Coming from someone who can pull more weight off the floor than most men I know, that lands differently. In our world of healing we talk constantly about the balance of energies, and here was the same truth arriving through a barbell instead of a meditation.

And then there's the vision — the reason I suspect the whole country will know her name in a few years. Shonee is building what she calls a Pasifika Marvel: a cinematic universe with Maori and Pasifika people at the centre. Not as the background characters. Not only in stories defined by trauma. As the heroes, the villains, the romantic leads, the comedians and the dreamers. And when she talks about representation, she means all of it — not just who's on screen, but who's writing, who's directing, who's holding the budget, who's making the decisions that shape how our people are seen. As two Kiwis who grew up rarely seeing ourselves in the stories we watched, Amber and I felt that one in the chest.

She also gave us one of the most beautiful business frameworks we've ever had on the show: the koha mindset. In te ao Maori, a koha is what you give because you can — and Shonee applies it to how we support each other's dreams. Support isn't only money. It's your time, a share, an introduction, a word of encouragement at the right moment. If people give her their time, she said, they'll never get that back — anything more than that is a koha. Imagine an industry that ran on that.

We did our usual thing at the end and turned the marketing lens on Mana Film Productions, and honestly, the advice wrote itself: document the journey. People don't buy the product, they buy you — and Shonee is the rare founder whose behind-the-scenes life is genuinely more cinematic than most people's finished films. Training at dawn, engineering by day, auditions in between, building a universe at night. That's the content. She doesn't need to wait for the films to drop to build the audience who'll watch them.

Her message for young Maori and Pasifika creatives is where I'll leave this, because it's the line I keep coming back to: you belong before anyone else gives you permission. Don't shrink your name, your culture, your light, your humour or your faith to fit the room. Sometimes you become ready by starting.

E te whanaunga, we are so proud of you. The bar's loaded. We know you'll lift it.

— Kebrasca

Find Shonee at [shoneesamia.com] and follow the Mana Film Productions journey. Book a reading with Amber at glowbyamber.com or explore Kebrasca's healing work at kebrascaking.com. #creativetalk is live every Thursday at 5PM AEST — where consciousness meets commerce.

Lightly edited for readability. #creativetalk with Amber & Kebrasca King, featuring Shonee Samia of Mana Film Productions.

[02:19] Welcome Another Thursday, another day in the life of us — and this week's guest is family. Before we bring her in, a catch-up on the week: Hyrox training with Robin continues (we're still alive), and a recap of last week's conversation with Monique Elouise on Kundalini activation.

[11:05] Introducing Shonee Samia We open with the clip that says it all — Shonee on the powerlifting platform. Actor, stunt performer, senior game engineer, national deadlift record holder, founder of Mana Film Productions, and Kebrasca's cousin. The many hats, and which one feels most like her (the producer).

[16:42] Faith, family and growing up Maori and Samoan Shonee on the family she comes from — built on faith and discipline — and how her Maori and Samoan heritage shaped the way she moves through every industry she's entered, and how rarely she's seen her people in the rooms she works in.

[22:26] Star Wars and the six-year-old who fixed grandpa's computer How a small girl teaching herself to code — because her grandfather kept getting hacked — became a senior lead engineer on Star Wars Jedi Survivor. What it's like being the only Pasifika woman in game development, and what those rooms taught her.

[27:08] The Pasifika Marvel The vision: a Marvel-scale universe with Maori and Pasifika people at the centre — heroes, villains, romance, comedy, not just trauma. Why representation means who writes, directs and budgets, not just who appears on screen. And what Mana Film Productions is building toward.

[39:21] The inner work of entrepreneurship The lessons nobody warns you about — that building the business builds you, that you can't be in this industry for the money, and the responsibility businesses carry beyond profit. Plus the koha mindset: supporting each other with whatever we can give.

[50:12] Two brain tumours at twenty The heart of the episode. Surviving two brain tumours in her early twenties, how it rewired her relationship with time, and the lesson she carries: stronger than she thought, softer than she knew. Strength as pushing through — and strength as asking for help.

[58:12] The bar doesn't care how you feel Powerlifting as the most honest teacher. Doing as much as you can until you physically can't, and what the platform taught her that no boardroom could.

[1:01:21] Gold Coast Screen Professional of the Year The award, the doors it's opened, and the scholarship to the Big Screen Symposium in Aotearoa.

[1:07:18] For the young ones coming up Her advice to young Maori and Pasifika creatives: you belong before anyone gives you permission. Don't shrink to fit the room — learn the craft, be excellent, and bring all of who you are.

[1:10:18] Marketing session: document the journey Our usual value-add for the guest: people don't buy the product, they buy you. Why Shonee's day-to-day life is her most powerful content, what IRL streamers understand that most brands don't, and how to build the audience before the films arrive.

[1:35:45] Farewell, cuzzy Gratitude, where to find Shonee, and next week's guest — bring your appetite.

Watch or listen to our full conversation with Shonee Samia on #creativetalk — on YouTube, Spotify and all podcast platforms.

This article touches on serious illness. It's intended as general inspiration and information, not medical advice. If any of it brings up something heavy for you, please reach out to a qualified professional or someone you trust.

Tags: #ShoneeSamia #Pasifika #Maori #filmmaker #womenintech #powerlifting #representation #StarWars #Melbourne #GoldCoast