Roger Tompkins

Roger Tompkins (born 28 February 1952 in Paddington, England) is a British television director of series such as The Ray Bradbury Theater and a tourism entrepreneur.

Born in Little Venice, Paddington, London but lived in Buckinghamshire where his father Anthony was a cameraman working for The Rank Organisation. Brought up on the back lot at Pinewood Studios. Tompkins first visited New Zealand in 1967. Spent the late sixties early seventies traveling. Hitchhiked from New Zealand to England. Traveled overland across Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indian, Afghanistan, and Iran to Europe. Lived in Paris and London before returning to New Zealand. 1972 Stage manager at The Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival in New Zealand; headline act Black Sabbath. 1973 Tour-managed Caravan, Lindisfarne, Slade, and Status Quo NZ/Australian tour. 1973 Moved to the UK to work with Linisfarne, Charisma Records (Tony Stratton-Smith & WEA Records (Ron Kass). 1975 Worked with Tony Secunda and Steeleye Span whose single ‘All Around My Hat’ reached the Top 5 in the UK charts.

In the mid seventies entered the UK film industry. Worked mostly on television commercials with some of the great commercial directors of the seventies and eighties: Bob Bierman, Len Fulford, Michael Seresin, Ross Crammer and Tony Scott. 1978 Worked on Eric Idle’s ‘The Rutles’ for NBC’s Saturday Night Live. 1979/80 London and Los Angeles worked on Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ animation liaison with Roger Waters and Gerald Scarf on the animated films for the live shows of. Returned to New Zealand and in 1981 set up Cranbrook Films, which is still one of the leading production and facilitation companies in Australia & New Zealand. For two decades Tompkins has directed TV commercials for leading major global brands: Apple, Pepsi, Shell, BP, Caltex, Mobil, IBM, Ford, Mitsubishi, GM, Land Rover, Telstra, Telecom, Tooheys, Lion Nathan, Kellogg's, Pfizer and many other successful campaigns such as: Tourism New Zealand's highly acclaimed global campaign "100% Pure New Zealand” and the Australian Government's Northern Territories Tourism campaign: “You'll never, never know if you never, never go.” His work is also remembered through such groundbreaking work as the three-minute 'Steinlager' campaign with Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones and the iconic Speight's series ‘Good On Ya Mate’ Southern Man campaign.1990 taking a six-month break from TVC's directed five episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theatre for Atlantic/HBO.Tompkins’ television commercials have won awards at almost every major advertising festival in the world, including Cannes, London (LAA) and New York. In addition, Roger has won many Antipodean awards at Axis, Award, Facts, ATV and MADC. His work has appeared - and his reel showcased - in Shots, the leading advertising industry DVD magazine. In 2006 Tompkins set-up Off The Rails the first specialized bicycle touring company along New Zealand's first and premier ‘Otago Central Rail Trail’. Having spent four decades exploring and filming in nearly every corner of New Zealand in 2011 Tompkins decided to use his extensive knowledge, his black book of contacts to start Our Man in New Zealand. OMINZ offers high worth clients visiting NZ a bespoke concierge service. From billionaires to boatpeople (that's clients with very big boats..) Tompkins is the companies Creative Director and driving force. A doyen of the New Zealand Tourism and Advertising industry he draws on his deep knowledge of the country and its peoples and develops unique personalised itineraries and events for his clients.