AboutRach.

Hi. I'm Rach.

Most CVs open with a career objective. Mine opens with a confession: I have never once followed a career plan, because I've never had one. I have ADHD, diagnosed at forty-nine, which means my so-called career path looks less like a ladder and more like a pinball machine. It has, however, been one hell of a ride. Here's the honest version.

I left school at fourteen and trained as a hairdresser, taught by three women who remain the finest management course I ever attended. First job before that: a paper run, five dollars ninety a week, terrified the whole time, did it anyway. That's been the method ever since.

I spent a decade in Sydney working in bars, fashion, and theatre, studying acting, and conducting extensive independent field research into dopamine. (Full findings published elsewhere. See: my books.)

I've worked in film and television for over twenty years as an actor and producer. I've done more commercials than I can count, held a role on a Disney television series, and was once told by a casting director that my face had been "too seen," which remains the nicest insult of my life.

I wrote, produced, and somehow also starred in Netta Jones, a short film inspired by my grandmother and my Māori and Croatian whakapapa. It premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival and was selected for festivals around the world.

I produced and guest-starred in a feature film, Same But Different, a romantic comedy inspired by my own love story, which screened in cinemas across New Zealand and Australia for many weeks. I made a film about falling in love with a woman while married to her, which is what I believe the corporate world calls "synergy."

I also spent thirteen years in corporate as a senior insurance adviser. Yes, at the same time as much of the above. I earned five thousand dollars in commission in my first week while heavily pregnant, discovered I could talk to anyone about anything, and learned that spreadsheets, unlike people, do not respond to charm. Thirteen years of translating complicated things into human language turned out to be excellent training for everything I do now.

I founded Mum's Mince, a volunteer network of women cooking home-made meals for the Auckland City Mission. It ran for years, and Auckland Council gave me a Good Citizen's Award, which my children found hilarious.

I've written three books. Crying Shame, a memoir named after my late father's band. Big Love, No Brakes, a survival guide for the ADHD heart and the people who love it. And My Brain Walks Into a Bar, about ADHD, addiction, and the punchline nobody explained to me. All written the way I live: honestly, quickly, and with the music up.

I'm the founder of Bonded, two things that didn't exist because they were the two things I wanted most. Bonded Ceremony is the world's first global commitment register, for couples who are more than boyfriend and girlfriend but don't want the legal route. Bonded Legacy is a living archive where you leave videos and messages for the people you love, for after you're gone, because I've spent thirty-five years wishing my dad had left me one.

References available: my mother, my children, two ex-spouses (actually, maybe don't), and a man with the bright blue eyes.