As a new season of Taskmaster NZ starts next month, we meet the familiar faces competing to win Jeremy Wells’s head.  

We could all do with a bit more silliness in our lives, so we come bearing excellent news: Taskmaster NZ is back. The comedy competition that prides itself on being completely pointless returns to our screens for a seventh glorious season next month, with five more familiar New Zealanders keen to launch themselves into a series of utterly ridiculous challenges, just for the fun of it. Jeremy Wells returns as Taskmaster to judge their efforts, while Paul Williams is back as the Taskmasker’s hapless assistant.

For the past seven years, Taskmaster NZ hasn’t let us down, delivering a whopping 251 challenges filled with chaos, carnage and caravan antics. Who could forget David Correos’ diss rap from season two or Ben Hurley’s unlikely moment of sporting fame? I still think about Alice Snedden’s spectacular hidden-cake meltdown at least once a week, while Bubbah’s Taskmaster contestant tattoo shows just how dedicated these players are to earn those precious, precious Taskmaster points. 

What unpredictable bedlam will season seven bring, and who are the five brave contestants vying to win a golden model of Jeremy Wells’s noggin? Let’s find out. 

Rose Matafeo

Big news. Huge news. Not only is Rose Matafeo an award-winning comedian, writer and actor whose TV shows like Starstruck, Funny Girls and NZ Spy have delighted fans around the world, but she’s already a Taskmaster veteran. Matafeo appeared in season nine of Taskmaster UK (arguably one of the best in the show’s entire run) before actually becoming the Taskmaster and corralling the kids of Junior Taskmaster. Will Matafeo’s Taskmaster experience give her an advantage at tackling tasks like “float this Brussels sprout down from the balcony” or “squirt the sunscreen the furthest”? Can’t wait to find out. 

Dave Fane

Actor, writer and director Dave Fane has been a fixture in New Zealand comedy and theatre for decades. A founding member of comedy group The Naked Samoans, Fane went on to build an illustrious career on the small screen, starring in TV shows from Skitz and Bro’Town to Outrageous Fortune and Our Flag Means Death, as well as films like Sione’s Wedding, Eagle vs Shark and Moana 2. Fane even provided one of the voices on explosive children’s animated series The Poo Files, a role that should come in handy for any wacky Taskmaster tasks involving hundreds of rolls of toilet paper. 

Morgana O’Reilly

Morgana O’Reilly is probably best known for serious acting roles like Pam in HBO drama White Lotus, or Deb in Bust Up, or Nicole in Friends Like Her, but Taskmaster is about to let O’Reilly showcase her comedic talents. There’s no doubt she’s is creative and adaptive under pressure, with her lockdown drama Inside winning an International Emmy, and she also turned her teenage diaries into a theatre show titled Stories About My Body (which was also recently made into a film). But how will O’Reilly go at catching a grape in a tuba? These are the big questions we need answered.

Rhys Mathewson

Winner of both the Billy T Award and Fred Award, comedian Rhys Mathewson has been a regular on 7 Days, Guy Mont Spelling Bee and The Project NZ. He was also a roving reporter on Seven Sharp, the very show hosted by the Taskmaster himself. Back in 2022, Wells sent Mathewson along to the Taskmaster NZ house to find out if he had what it takes to be a contestant,. Watching an increasingly frazzled Mathewson turn a clotheshorse into a real horse by donning a life jacket and helmet before desperately pulling everything to pieces, suggests we’re in for a real treat. 

Hoani Hotene

Hoani Hotene (Ngāti Hauā) has been on the rise in the New Zealand comedy scene for the past few years, winning a plethora of major comedy awards. He took home the best newcomer at the 2021 Wellington Comedy Awards, was crowned funniest new comedian at the 2022 Raw Comedy National Grand Final, was NZ Comedy Guild’s breakthrough comic of 2024, and in 2025, Hotene won the prestigious Billy T Award for his show It’s Getting Hot-ene in Here. Will Hotene win the greatest comedy prize of them all – the Taskmaster’s head? We’ll find out in September. 

Season seven of Taskmaster NZ premieres on TVNZ+ and TVNZ2 on September 14.