Sieni Tiana Leo’o Olo (aka Bubbah Olo or Bubbah) is a Samoan actor and comedian known in New Zealand as “Tina from Turners” in the advertisements of Turners Automotive Group.
The Samoan-New Zealand comedian, who was raised in Māngere “by a village” told the NZ Herald she is leaving her life in New Zealand to return to her roots in Samoa.
“The move was inspired by a deeper sense of belonging and a desire for a simpler, more connected life.”
The last time I went, I just felt like it was calling me,” Leo’o Olo told the Herald.
“It’s real off-grid and everyone’s outside … you live off the land. I think it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Sieni Tiana Leo’o Olo is named after her grandmother so her family gave her the nickname Bubbah to tell them apart.
They called me that because when I was born I was a little bubbah,” she explained.
She will return to live on her great-grandparents’ land in the village of Utuali’i, where her grandad was raised and her extended family still lives.
The actor comedian used to visit Utualii often as a child, traveling back and forth with her parents. Utuali’i is a village on the Main West Coast road of Upolu near Malua.
Career
In 2012, when Leo’o Olo was sixteen, she joined the Massive Theatre Company and started her path to acting. She was part of a group that traveled in 2016 to Sterling Scotland to present their play The Island.
She appeared in Massive Theatre Company’s play Chance To Ignite in 2017. Leo’o Olo performed her show The Family Disappointment in 2018.
In 2020, she wrote a show called My Ode To South Auckland and performed it in her backyard. Leo’o Olo was in the film Mama’s Music Box, and on television she has appeared in SIS, Double Parked, Duckrockers, and Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee.
She also portrayed “Tina from Turners” in a 2023 ad campaign for Turners Automotive Group.
She appeared in the fourth series of Taskmaster NZ in 2023 where she got a tattoo of the other four contestants as part of a task for the show. She began an internship writing for Shortland Street in late 2023.
She says Samoa plans to write – possibly a series – and said the slower pace of island life will be beneficial to her art.
The daughter of Utuali’i said the last time she was home, she “felt the place was calling me.”
“I think being in Samoa would totally help me as a person. I think if my soul is fed, then I should be fine with a career.”
“It’s a really happy environment all the time, which might be scary for some people, but I love that,” Leo’o Olo said.
“We don’t even have an oven. We’re cooking on stones and with firewood. It’s like going back in a time machine, so all the concepts of all the new things here don’t exist over there.
“No one’s arguing about silly things and debating online. No one cares. And I don’t either, so I fit right in.”
Set to depart in early June, Leo’o Olo said while some expected her to “ride the momentum I’m on”, she felt she’d “rather feed my soul”.
Leo’o Olo remains open to bookings and intends to travel back for work when required. But returning to New Zealand permanently is unlikely.
Leo’o Olo says she does not think she’ll return to New Zealand to live.
“I love my life over there. I’m doing karaoke at 7am with my cousins, and it’s noisy, which I love … animals, chickens going off, pigs, even the cows are singing in the morning.”
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