Hern broke into the international indie film scene as the sole producer on chess drama, The Dark Horse, a critic’s darling, local box office smash, and international award-winner (over 20 prizes - including Audience Prizes at the Rotterdam, Seattle, and San Francisco International Film Festivals). Hern was the lead producer on Shadow in the Cloud, which won the TIFF Midnight Madness Award and has grossed over $10M in US VOD box office and coproduced Guns Akimbo (starring Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving).

In 2020, after years of creative producing, Hern made the natural move into writing, directing, and showrunning his own projects. Alongside biz partner, Halaifonua Finau, Hern co-created and show-ran Tavake’s drama series, The Panthers (about the Polynesian Panthers political movement in the ‘70s), on which Hern also acted as a director. The Panthers premiered at TIFF, broke streaming records in its home territory, and won a slew of Awards.

Recently, Hern directed a docu-series in Joshua Tree California, Desert Hikoi, for TVNZ and acted as a lead Executive Producer on Tavake’s latest scripted series; Madam (starring Rachel Griffiths and Martin Henderson); set within the legalised sex work industry in New Zealand.

Hern is currently developing a diverse slate of local and international projects as writer, producer and director.