Hannah Herchenbach

Hannah Herchenbach is a writer and actress based on the South Island of New Zealand who embodies Tom Wolfe's saturation reporting ethos and Hunter S. Thompson's tendency to throw himself into the story. Born in Illinois, in 2010, as a freelance music writer, she moved to Dunedin, New Zealand to find Peter Gutteridge, an indie rock musician who had gained notoriety as a founding member of legendary Flying Nun bands in the 1980s but little had been heard from since. A few hours after arriving, she befriended him in the supermarket and began what has now been more than a decade of immersion in the South Island rock music scene, completing a PhD at the University of Otago in 2022. In the process, she formed her own indie rock band, PGX, whose debut EP Naive came out in February 2020 and debut album, White Suit, will be released on the Christchurch indie label Melted Ice Cream later this year. 

She was cast as a lead in Martin Sagadin's Spring Interlude, a 2019 independent film. Currently, she is developing a television series about the steep and hilarious learning curve of forming your first rock band in your 30s. She was in the Christchurch City Council's inaugural Toi Otautahi Filmmakers Incubator programme in 2022 and belongs to Te Puna Matarau, a committee advocating for filmmakers in the region. She is elated to be a Sundance Community Leader, as her passion lies in encouraging and nurturing fresh talent transitioning into the industry alongside her.