Fern Sutherland (born in 1987) is a New Zealand actress, best known for her role as Dawn in The Almighty Johnsons and Detective Sims in The Brokenwood Mysteries. Career Fern Sutherland entered the New Zealand filmdom only recently but as a debut actress she has made quite a mark. Starting her career as a lead artiste in short films produced by the UNITEC Performing Arts School, she pursued her acting work in theatre shows like Silo Theatre’s Ensemble Project 08, the Auckland Theatre Company’s The Pohutakawa Tree (2009) and The End of the Golden Weather (2011), among others. In her later years, she ventured into television plays for South Pacific Pictures doing small roles in Go Girls and The Almighty Johnsons. Most recently Sutherland can be seen sharing top billing in the miniseries The Brokenwood Mysteries. "I get extreme stage fright and really bad anxiety, so by rights acting is probably the worst career choice for me, but the truth is I really love being able to create and bring characters to life," Fern Sutherland once expressed. Fern bagged a nomination for the best supporting actress at the 2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards (AFTAs) for her role in The Almighty Johnsons.