As a p.g.a. producer on Taika Waititi’s Academy nominated feature Jojo Rabbit Chelsea became the first indigenous female Oscar® nominee for Best Picture. 

In 2019 she joined Night Raiders as a producer on the first Canadian / NZ Indigenous Co-Production written and directed by Creē first nations filmmaker Danis Goulet. 

In 2019 Ava Duvernay and Array Now distributed critically-acclaimed documentary feature, Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen, which played at the 2019 Sundance and Berlin film festivals and is now on Netflix worldwide. 

In 2014, she produced the hit mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows, directed by Waititi and Jemaine Clement – now a TV show for FX. And early in her career, she produced several award winning short films two of which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. 

As a director she began making documentaries winning a Media Peace award with her graduating film Whakangahau. She went on to direct several short documentaries and television series for local broadcasters. She was one of nine women who made the anthology feature Waru which won the LAAPFF best film award in 2018. Her short film Forgive Me screened at ImagineNATIVE Film Festival in October 2019 and had it’s NZ premiere at the NZIFF in July 2020. 

Chelsea has several projects on her slate in various stages of development as a director and producer. Kapō with writer director Etienne Auralis Thief of Sleeo starring Mojean Aria. As a director she is currently in post with the documentary Toi Tū Toi Ora – Visual Sovereignty and developing the dramatic feature The Appeal.