Spy: The Night Agent - meet Netflix’s hottest Kiwi star (2024)

The Night Agent star Luciane Buchanan not only has Netflix’s No 1 show in the world right now – the Kiwi actress has become the top search on entertainment bible IMDB.

It may appear the 29-year-old Aucklander’s star has risen rapidly, but she has been in the industry for more than 10 years with smaller roles in mainly New Zealand television and film.

Buchanan took acting classes at the Auckland Performing Arts Centre, including with acting royalty Miranda Harcourt. She graduated with a BA in drama and psychology from the University of Auckland in 2017.

Her Night Agent audition was done via tape from New Zealand because of lockdowns but her chemistry was also on point for her character of Rose, alongside FBI agent Peter, played by US star Gabriel Basso. The pair expose the truth and manage to stay alive in the fast-paced political thriller, which was filmed over six months in Canada last year.

The show came on Netflix three weeks ago and in the past two weeks is the streaming giant’s top-watched show worldwide. It is also among Netflix’s top 10 most-watched English language series of all time.

Speaking to Spy from the New Zealand set of her new Apple TV+ series, Jason Momoa’s Chief of War, Buchanan says she is very humble, a little overwhelmed, yet thrilled the Netflix show is in its second week at No 1. In Chief of War, she is playing Queen Ka’ahumanu, filming with Momoa and Kiwis Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison.

Buchanan credits a tight team effort in getting to the point in her career that she has dreamed about for years and is excited to see the doors it opens.

She laughs when asked if her degree helped her with roles.

“In terms of how I approach characters, I always like to see why and for what reasons the characters make their decisions – but I don’t go too deep into theories.”

That psychology certainly did come into play with the first screenplay she has written, a short film that she hopes will come out this year, called Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue.

And she’ll be appearing on screens again soon, after the stars aligned with Kiwi film-maker Scott Walker. She is the lead in his anticipated new horror movie, The Tank.

Walker signed Buchanan to head the cast of his “creature feature” before she filmed The Night Agent.

The Tank is Walker’s first film since he took his young family home from Los Angeles just before lockdown. The following year he wrote, produced and directed the suspense horror, which unleashes unspeakable ancient creatures from their watery rest.

Walker tells Spy the film premieres in US theatres this week ahead of rolling out worldwide and, for the past two weeks, its first trailer has been the most popular on Apple Trailers in the US, “which for a film of its size, is incredible”.

The creature design and special effects were led by five-time Academy Award-winner Sir Richard Taylor and the team at Wētā Workshop. The movie was filmed in Auckland in December and January last year at our western beaches and at South Pacific Pictures.

Starring alongside Buchanan, who plays Jules, is fellow Kiwi actor Matt Whelan, playing husband Ben who, along with their 7-year-old daughter, takes over an abandoned Oregon coastal property that contains a disused water tank.

Walker says that, when he gave US media a sneak peek of Wētā's handiwork this week, they got one hell of a fright from one of the creatures.

Buchanan tells Spy the role of Jules was challenging and she can’t wait for audiences to see the movie, which she thinks people will find a fun and terrifying rollercoaster of a ride.

As part of her audition, Walker had Buchanan read with Whelan and immediately saw the chemistry was right. She says she is so pleased her director saw something in her.

Kiwi audiences will have to wait until June to view The Tank in theatres. Spy thinks it will be the second Kiwi-made runaway horror international hit of the year after M3GAN.