Ward-Lealand won the New Zealander of the Year Award in 2020, being recognised for her dedication to performing arts and her commitment and passion for te reo Māori.

In the 2019 New Year Honours, Ward-Lealand was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to theatre, film and television and for her advocacy for actors’ working conditions and pay.

In October 2018 she was presented with a Scroll of Honour from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand for her contribution to New Zealand entertainment.

The same year Ward-Lealand made her big screen debut as nightclub singer Costello – and sang three songs – in Wellington crime thriller Dangerous Orphans.

As an actress, singer and director of theatre, Ward-Lealand has a number of credits and accolades, and acted in New Zealand plays The Bach, Via Satellite, and The Sex Fiend. In 2007, she toured her acclaimed Marlene Dietrich cabaret show, Falling in Love Again (also the name of her first solo CD) in New Zealand and Australia. She later toured with the same show in 2018.

Ward-Lealand’s contribution to New Zealand theatre was recognised in 2007 New Year Honours with her investiture as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to theatre and the community.

She is married to actor Michael Hurst of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fame. They have two sons, born in 1997, and 1999.

From 1989 to 1990 she appeared with Harry Sinclair and Don McGlashan in theatre/musical group The Front Lawn, winning a number of awards and accolades, and acting in Front Lawn film Linda’s Body. In 1993 she appeared in the first series of TV skit comedy show, Full Frontal.

In 1982 Ward-Lealand completed a year-long diploma in acting from Auckland’s then influential Theatre Corporate. In between the theatre work that followed, Ward-Lealand appeared in short-lived TV drama Seekers, before her breakthrough television role in “Danny and Raewyn”, an episode from the About Face series. Filmed largely in an Auckland flat so cramped the cameraman sometimes had to sit on the stove, this tale of working class relationship breakdown would win Ward-Lealand a GOFTA Best Actress Award.

Her first ongoing television role was as Jan in Close to Home (1978–1980). After leaving school she spent a year touring New Zealand in a community theatre group, performing clown shows and Chekhov.

Jennifer Cecily Ward-Lealand CNZM (born 8 November 1962) is a New Zealand actor and director whose screen credits includes the in 1993 movie Desperate Remedies as well as appearances in The Footstep Man, the soap Shortland Street and Australian comedy series Full Frontal.