Nigel Latta did more than anyone to popularise psychology in New Zealand.
The Oamaru-born psychologist, author, television personality and social commentator, who died after a long illness in September aged 58, was willing to talk about and examine almost anything.
He attended Waitaki Boys’ High School, and briefly considered becoming a police officer.
When he was young he toured the South Island as part of a skiffle band.
Latta studied marine science and zoology at the University of Otago, and completed a master of philosophy with first-class honours in psychology at the University of Auckland, along with a postgraduate diploma in clinical psychology.
He had ambitions of being a fiction writer, but after the tepid response to his first novel, Execution Lullaby, his publisher suggested he might have more success in non-fiction.
By then, he had worked as a psychologist for nearly two decades, often with troubled children, and it was this work that inspired his first book and television series Beyond the Darklands.
The series examined some of New Zealand’s most notorious criminal cases: a 2012 episode on the Nia Glassie case was described by a Stuff reviewer as "quite likely the most horrifying but also the most important piece of television a New Zealander could ever see".
But he also put his face on screen to sunnier endeavours with a series of television shows about parenting and raising children. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Parenting mostly featured Latta speaking to a live audience about the trials and tribulations of being a parent — and offering practical, if occasionally eccentric, advice along the way.
Just to prove he was a good sport, he got behind the wheel for Surviving Teen Driving.
His 2014 series, simply called Nigel Latta, covered topics as varied as the school system, the country’s dependence on alcohol and the gap between the rich and the poor.
"We have to ask better questions of the people in charge," Latta said in an interview with Stuff.
He could also be irreverent on screen: Nigel Blows Stuff Up featured Latta doing just that — in the name of science, obviously.
In 2016 he formed Ruckus, a production company, with producer Arwen O’Connor and director Mitchell Hawkes.
He was executive producer and consulting psychologist on award-winning documentaries Born This Way and Stan, about singer Stan Walker’s cancer story.
He collaborated with journalist John Campbell on What Next?
Psychology and financial planning also proved perennial topics, and they came together in 2018’s Mind Over Money. His last television show was 2023’s You’ve Been Scammed.
Hawkes said Latta was "very easy to work with — I never saw him once lose his temper".
"And he was always very generous to the people we interviewed. He made them feel special."
Latta once did a DNA test for a show and found he had the optimism gene and the quick-to-anger gene, Hawkes said.
"While he always was optimistic, the anger thing was very, very rare.
"He was embarrassed to be thought of as special — he was genuinely humble. I remember a cafe owner asking him to autograph a table and he asked why they wanted to lower the value of their furniture."
O’Connor said Latta was "naturally charismatic and believable",
"The believability part can’t be overstated either — it meant people trusted him.
"We made a lot of shows on different topics yet people believed what he said .
"There was obviously a lot of research behind the shows, but the most important bit was people believed the person passing on the information. And that was one of Nigel’s biggest skills."
During this period, he continued to work as a psychologist and consultant for the Department of Corrections, sex offender treatment programmes, the police and Oranga Tamariki.
He was also a public supporter of longitudinal studies, which led to him becoming an associate of Otago University’s Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study .
In September 2024, Latta publicly revealed he had been diagnosed with a "terminal and inoperable" cancer, and over the subsequent months, he worked on his autobiography, which also doubled as an advisory on life, Lessons on Living.
It was published in September this year to good reviews and brisk sales.
Latta is survived by his wife Natalie Flynn, his daughter Rina, his son Kieran and his three stepchildren Elijah, Maya and Leon.
— Matthew Littlewood
