Sir Peter Jackson was born in Pukerua Bay Wellington in 1961. He began making movies at an early age using his parents' Super 8 camera. He left school at 17 and began shooting a science fiction comedy short, which three years later had grown into a 75-minute feature called Bad Taste. In 1986, Jackson quit his job as an apprentice photo engraver after he received his first grant from the New Zealand Film Commission of $5,000. Bad Taste was released two years later.

The collaborative creative partnership between Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh has been at the centre of Sir Peter's career in film. Walsh and Jackson co-wrote Meet the Feebles in 1990. This was followed by Braindead and Heavenly Creatures. Braindead won 16 international science fiction awards, including a Saturn Award, and Heavenly Creatures received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay in 1994. Jackson’s first box-office hit was The Frighteners (1996), starring Michael J Fox. From there, he made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of film awards from around the globe, including 17 Academy Awards, 12 British Academy of Film and Television Awards and four Golden Globes. After completing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sir Peter directed, wrote and produced King Kong for Universal Pictures. The film won three Oscars. In 2009, Jackson produced the Academy Award nominated science fiction drama District 9 directed by Neill Blomkamp. Sir Peter would then go on to direct and produce The Lovely Bones and The Hobbit Trilogy as well as the award winning World War 1 documentary They Shall Not Grow Old.

In 2010 he was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the film industry and in the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand.