The comedian takes us through her life in television, including her favourite Kardashian tiff, Taskmaster task, and the best thing about being Tina from Turners. 

Sieni Tiana Leo’o Olo, aka Bubbah, is used to being approached by men in bars – but not for the reasons you might expect. “I have gotten into so many conversations about selling their cars,” she laughs. “People love it, it’s really good because sometimes I’ll get a free drink.” She’s talking about her enduring onscreen role as Tina from Turners, whose passion for all things cars has quickly made her as beloved as the Briscoes Lady and Lily from Big Save. 

Although she admits to not knowing anything about cars – “I didn’t even know what a Fiat was before these ads” – Bubbah deeply admires Tina’s sense of self. “She’s just the bomb. She’s her own person, and she’s just cool.” So cool, in fact, that following the passing of rock legend Tina Turner, widespread panic spread on social media that Tina From Turners had died. “I started to get all these worrying texts and calls,” she laughs. “I got wellness checked.” 

Thankfully, Tina from Turners lives to this day, and Bubbah is well aware of her growing icon status. “The response was crazy, but it mostly made me feel so old that kids don’t know who Tina Turner is.” Given the public’s love and adoration, could Tina ever topple the Briscoes Lady? Or, to put it another way, who does she think would win in a fight? “Definitely the Briscoes Lady. She’s been in the game a while – plus Tina respects her elders.” 

When she’s not remonstrating around a car yard during the ad breaks, Bubbah can also be found on Taskmaster NZ, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee, and now in the second season of Tahi’s digital first series I Got You as a clueless dating expert. “We came up with this idea about this girl who is giving people relationship advice, but she’s single,” says Bubbah. “Very close to home, there were a lot of similarities between us.” 

Does she also dish out amateur dating advice in her own life? “Yeah,” she laughs. “I’m a bots.” Luckily for us, Bubbah is far from an amateur when it comes to television-watching, and she was more than happy to take The Spinoff through her colourful life in television, including her favourite Kardashian tiff, bringing Love Island to Taskmaster NZ, and learning all the science she knows from The Big Bang Theory. 

My earliest TV memory is… Seventh Heaven. I would always watch what my Grandma watched, so I always watched a lot of daytime talk shows like Jerry Springer and all those types of shows. I grew up with Ellen, Young and the Restless, and this was before I was even going to school. 

The TV show that I would rush home from school to watch was… I was an outside kid, so this is hard. The Butt Ugly Martians would have been one, and Jimmy Neutron. I loved Jimmy Neutron. I might watch that today actually. 

My earliest TV crush was… Woody from Toy Story. I liked his hat, his shirt, and the fact that he was always trying to keep the gang together. What a good-hearted man. 

The TV moment that haunts me is… John Key getting elected, nah I’m kidding. 

My favourite New Zealand TV ad is… The Mitre 10 Mega “big is good” ad. He’s just really big, and it’s just really cool. 

My TV guilty pleasure is… I’m devoted to The Kardashians. Oh my gosh, the drama. I feel like they’re like my family. I know nobody likes it anymore, but I just love their dramas and I feel so sorry for Kourtney because everyone ganged up on her and they had a group chat where they all talked about her. I love that shit. 

My favourite TV moment of all time is… Every time Kim and Kourtney fight. 

My favourite TV character of all time is… Sione from bro’Town. I would have been like eight years old when I watched that show. I wasn’t allowed to watch it so I would sneak out when everyone was distracted and turn it to super low volume and go right up to the TV. 

My favourite Taskmaster NZ task was… Obviously not the glitter task. I think all the acting ones were my favourites. I loved the Love Island one, because that was the only one that came really easily to me. I love Love Island too, all those reality TV shows are my shit. Nobody else really got what I was doing though, they were all just like “what the fuck is this”?

My most used streaming platform is… Netflix. I’ve got no social media anymore so I watch Netflix all the time these days, watching murder documentaries and crime series. I’m a true crime girl – I love the mafia, Pablo, El Chapo, all of it. 

My favourite TV project I’ve ever been involved in is… Taskmaster NZ. I still can’t believe that was a job, I just got to play games all day like a little kid. I hadn’t seen the show, none of my family even knew what it was. I didn’t even think about it at all, I just went in thinking it was another job and it ended up being one of the coolest things of my life. My tattoo is also well and healed and I think looks better than when I got it. People who don’t know me or haven’t seen the show will see it and say “is that Ray O’Leary?” I tell them I just love New Zealand comedy. 

The TV show that defined my lockdown was.. I went through the whole of The Big Bang Theory. I was a physicist by the end. 

The TV show I wish I had been involved in is… Euphoria. From Tina to Roux, that would be such a different playing field. 

My most watched show of all time is… Probably Friends. I’ve watched it so many times when I was younger that when I watched it again more recently on Netflix, I realised that I had seen every single episode. I had just never seen it in order because the TV never played it in order. 

My most controversial TV opinion is… That Kim is bullying Kourtney. 

A TV show that I’ll never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… It feels like such a commitment, so I have never started Peaky Blinders. I’ve watched Legend about the Kray brothers, so I feel like it’s just going to be a very elongated version of that. I know that story already, I know my gang crime. 

The last thing that I watched on TV was… A documentary called Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy. I was just watching it as you called [The Spinoff called at 9am on a Thursday].