McLeod, Islay
Dunedin-born Islay McLeod, 25, has honed the craft of always looking happy on screen into a fairish sort of art
Art because she makes it look easy. And many times it could not have been.
Islay's natural talent took a while to surface. Her schooldays in Timaru and at Avonside Girls High in Christchurch certainly uncovered no particular academic bent
Her first job as a commercial copywriter for a Christchurch department store was more rewarding and led to a copywriting position with the then NZBC in 1971
It took less than a year, however, for the personality to take over from the pen. That's when Islay was invited to audition for the part of frontlady for Pop Co. And the job was hers for the 15-programme series.
Keeping up her new-found momentum, Islay took the plunge and auditioned for announcer training in Wellington. Broadcasting chiefs were glad to have her.
So were radio station 3ZM and CHTV3 on her graduation. But one weather shift a week on television in Christchurch was not sufficient to keep her from greener Wellington pastures in 1974 after Islay had decided that radio announcing was simply not her bag.
The shift north meant another dose of copywriting, this time for head office, NZBC-plus contract continuity announcing on telly and Saturday stints behind the microphone for 2ZM.
Islay transferred to the Television One promotions department on April 1 last year but doesn't regard the move as foolish.
For one thing she is standby weather girl, for another she fills in afternoon continuity shifts for John Hayden. And for another she understudies Roger Gascoigne. But all the while Islay has kept her pen in trim and under all that niceness lurks a goodly store of creativity.
Guess who won the International Retail Advertising Conference radio spot section competition in 1974?
Islay's winning commercial for a boutique-Hot Rags-did the trick and made competition capital Chicago sit up and take notice.
Islay's doing what she fancies now and hopes it can always be that way-as long as she keeps an eye on the main chance.
