Filmography

Director · Producer · Key Grip

Feature Films
Second Hand Wedding
01

Second Hand Wedding

2008 · Director / Producer

A family rom-com shot on a $200k budget that ran 17 weeks in cinemas, reaching 7th on the all-time NZ box office.

Best Female Lead · Best Supporting Actress — Qantas NZ Film Awards 2008
In competition — Shanghai International Film Festival
Finalist — Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis

Love Birds
02

Love Birds

2011 · Director

Starring Rhys Darby and Sally Hawkins. Despite a national disaster impacting its release, it became the 3rd highest-grossing New Zealand film of the year.

Best Director, Foreign Film (Audience Award) — Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Festival, China

Lowdown Dirty Criminals
03

Lowdown Dirty Criminals

2020 · Director

Starring James Rolleston, Samuel Austin and Rebecca Gibney. Two small-time crooks accidentally kill the wrong man and find themselves hunted by Wellington's most feared crime boss.

Available on Apple TV · Prime Video · TVNZ On Demand

Television
2013

Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls

NBC Reality Series — Producer / Director of Digital Content

Producer · Director
2005–09

Sensing Murder

10 episodes — one of New Zealand's highest-rating shows at the time.
Lost Soul · Bump In The Night · Lost For Words · In Too Deep · Into Thin Air · Long Way Home · Now You See Me · Without Warning · Stone Cold · Quest For Justice

Director
2004–05

The New Tomorrow

5 episodes — Cloud Nine Productions

Director
2003

The Tribe

Parallel Unit — Cloud Nine Productions

Director
Camera & Grip

Over more than four decades, Paul has worked as key grip and dolly grip across some of the world's most ambitious productions. Beginning on films like Goodbye Pork Pie and UTU in the early 1980s, he became one of New Zealand's most trusted grips — working on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong — and has continued to take on major international productions including The White Lotus, Our Flag Means Death, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

2026

Deep Water

A Dolly Grip
2025

Chief of War

TV Mini Series · 9 episodes

A Dolly Grip
2025

The White Lotus

TV Series · 1 episode

Dolly Grip
2023

Our Flag Means Death

TV Series · 8 episodes

A Dolly Grip
2022

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

TV Series · 8 episodes

A Dolly Grip
2019

Savage

Key Grip
2018

Mortal Engines

Producer: Peter Jackson

B Dolly Grip
2018

The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen

TV Mini Series · 4 episodes

Key Grip
2015

Krampus

Director: Michael Dougherty

B Dolly Grip
2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Second unit · Director: Peter Jackson

A Dolly Grip
2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Second unit · Director: Peter Jackson

Grip
2009

Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Photography
2007

Who Killed Mrs De Ropp?

TV Movie

Gaffer
2005

King Kong

Second unit · Director: Peter Jackson

Key Grip
2004

Spooked

Director: Geoff Murphy

Key Grip
2003

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Lava & Paths of the Dead miniatures unit · Director: Peter Jackson

Key Grip
2002–03

Revelations: The Initial Journey

TV Series · 18 episodes

Grip
2002

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Director: Peter Jackson

Key Grip
2002

The Strip

TV Series · 16 episodes

Key Grip
2001

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Director: Peter Jackson

Key Grip
2001

Stickmen

Key Grip
2000

Typhon's People

TV Movie

Grip
1999

Scarfies

Director: Robert Sarkies

Key Grip
1999

A Twist in the Tale

TV Series · 15 episodes

Key Grip
1998–99

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson

TV Series · 30 episodes

Key Grip
1998

The Legend of William Tell

TV Series · 16 episodes

Key Grip
1997–98

The Enid Blyton Secret Series

TV Series · 16 episodes

Key Grip
1996

Christmas Oratorio

New Zealand unit

Grip
1995

Mirror, Mirror

TV Series · 20 episodes

Key Grip
1994

Fallout

TV Mini Series

Key Grip
1994

Rugged Gold

TV Movie

Key Grip
1991

The Sound and the Silence

TV Movie

Grip
1988

Never Say Die

Grip
1983

UTU

Director: Geoff Murphy

Grip
1982

Carry Me Back

Directors: John Reid, Derek Morton

Grip
1981

Goodbye Pork Pie

Director: Geoff Murphy

Grip
Paul Murphy on set — Scarfies, 1998
On set — Scarfies, 1998
Short Films

2000

Sox

Written & Directed by Paul Murphy.
Screened at Wellington International Film Festival.

2014

Food For Thought

Co-Producer. Crowd-funded short film.
Directed by Pat Robins.

2016

Possum

Co-Producer. NZFC funded short film.
Directed by Dave Whitehead.