Waititi talks about gowing up (+VIDEO)

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(by TOM HUNT) For Taika Waititi the life-changing moment came as he sat in a green room wearing a g-string.

That, and other odd facts about the Oscar-nominated director, came out as he spoke about his upbringing in Doha in TEDx – an independently organised event to spread ideas.

Waititi appeared in it late last year. He said his mother was of Russian and Jewish heritage while his father was a farmer and an artist who between them ”gave birth to a beautiful Asian daughter called Taika”.

He showed old school photos, including one of him as a young boy at Wellington’s Te Aro School, and revealed some of his early artworks such as the doctored one and two dollar bills he exhibited at Deluxe Cafe years back.

As a young boy he was obsessed with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and ”drew it and drew it”.

He also discussed a childhood fascination with the swastika which, fearing he would get caught, he changed into a window, and then a house.

Among his bizarre inventions have been the button-down tie, an emery board guitar neck, and ”rugbaby”, which combines his love of rugby and babies.

But Waititi was introduced to the world for his Oscar-nominated film Two Cars, One Night.

The catalyst came when he was featuring as a stripper in a TV show.

I remember sitting around in the green room in my g-string thinking ‘why am I doing this, just helping someone else to realise their dream’.

So what I started doing was writing my own scripts and stuff.”

And the rest is history.