Sprinkling a little sunshine ­– it’s what Suzy Cato does. Just like the words in her hit children’s song, Suzy has uplifted, educated and inspired millions through decades in children’s TV and radio.  And the North Shore-based national treasure continues to bring hope and happiness wherever she goes. With her powers of positivity perhaps needed now more than ever, Suzy sat down with Channel’s Heather Barker Vermeer for a shot of sunshine and storytelling…

Born in Brisbane to Kiwi parents, Suzy’s family moved to New Zealand when she was just one month old. After five years in Hamilton, the family moved to the Bay of Islands, where she and her younger sister were raised in the small town of Kaikohe. Contemplating a quiet life in the country, 17 year-old Suzy did a secondary school work experience stint radio broadcasting with Radio Northland, in Whangarei. It lit a torch in the previously ‘shy and angsty’ teen. Taking a punt on her newfound passion, she decided to pursue radio broadcasting and after a couple of years in Whangarei with KCC FM, as one of the youngest female Kiwi broadcasters at that time, she moved down to ‘the big smoke’ to take her career a step further.
“Coming to Auckland was rather daunting,” she recalls. “I didn’t think I’d like city life at all – I was such a country girl. I wasn’t sure it would suit me, but I discovered I loved the buzz!
Young Suzy began flatting in Hauraki Corner in the late 1980s. “I began on 91FM with ‘Muzza in the Morning’, beaming out of the heart of Takapuna, from a two-storey building on Campbell Road.”
There, she met another young broadcaster called Steve, and the pair began a radio station romance that would eventually lead to marriage. Following a fairy tale-style wedding, complete with horse and carriage, the couple moved to Birkenhead and have loved living there ever since.
“I fell in love with Auckland,” she says. “And I fell in love here with the man who is now my husband. We love living on the Shore. In Hauraki Corner I loved having the beach so close by. In Birkenhead the beaches are still so close and there are gorgeous bush walks and pockets of farmland on your doorstep.
“I love the simple things, like the tranquility of the bush, and seeing the horse paddocks on my walks. Our family has always loved Onepoto Domain and Little Shoal Bay. And I love the work of so many local organisations, such as Kaipātiki Community Facilities Trust and the family events it puts on.”
Suzy’s career in children’s broadcasting came about through conversations and charisma. Besides radio, she was did a stint as a photographer’s assistant and for a time also worked with a record company transporting celebrities to guest appearances on children’s entertainment shows. It was through this she struck up a conversation with the executive producer of The Early Bird Show.
“I remember talking to the producer about how I felt a children’s presenter should connect with their audience in a way that includes them and isn’t just about voyeurism. That was exactly what they were looking for, he told me, and he felt I had the right kind of personality to be able to do this. Soon after, he offered me a presenting role.”
From 1990, she hosted The Early Bird Show, until the show ended in 1993. She also hosted the show 3PM, joining the team in designing the show from props and set elements to the on-air content. “That was really empowering,” she says. “I had just turned 21 at the time and it really gave me a sense of voice and involvement.”
Keen to develop her all-round entertainment abilities, Suzy enrolled with well-known North Shore singing coach Janice Webb for vocal training. This gave her the confidence to audition for pre-school show You and Me. She landed the role presenting and singing on the popular programme, travelling to Dunedin for two weeks of each month, for five years, to film the show.
Like all good fairy tales, Suzy’s story hasn’t all been plain sailing. Her lust for life has had to be rebuilt from professional and personal setbacks. Abrupt redundancy hit her hard – financially and emotionally – and the misery of multiple miscarriages is a place Suzy knows all too well.
“I hold onto the belief that things do tend to happen for a reason,” she says. “This can be hard to understand at the time because you are so overwhelmed with pain and frustration. Life can be tough.”
Beyond the tears, she learned to develop her own coping mechanisms. “I found solace in my walks in nature. And there’s nothing like belting out a good old power ballad in the shower! That can do wonders for you, I find.”
Suzy had her first successful pregnancy with daughter Riley, now 18, followed by son, Morgan who is 15. “Parenting has meant that I have had to grow up myself,” she smiles. “Children are such a gift; they teach you so much.”
She says she sees much more emotional maturity in her children than she had at their age. “I carried the weight of the world on my shoulders as a tween,” she says. “I had no self-confidence. I was never really naughty, but I was very shy and very angsty. My parents would raise an eyebrow and I would go into a spiral of self-doubt!”
Riley is currently overseas on her ‘OE’, after completing her studies at Takapuna Grammar School, where Morgan also goes to school. A confident performer, Riley took the lead role in the school’s production of Mamma Mia last year. “We’ve loved Takapuna Grammar,” Suzy says. “There are so many great schools on the Shore; you just have to find the best fit for your child.”
Suzy has found her fit with husband Steve – the pair are well-suited workmates and spend their days creating content for ‘Suzy’s World’, her multi-platform education and entertainment offering for kids. She was grateful to stay busy during the darker days of Covid lockdown, providing TVNZ with material to occupy young Kiwis in her series, on Home Learning TV.
Her radio show, Suzy & Friends, is broadcast on 28 stations across the country – and beyond, as part of Air New Zealand’s in-flight entertainment, showcasing Kiwi artists around the world. Suzy has three new children’s songs coming out this autumn, a popular You Tube channel, holds monthly song and storytelling sessions (including in Shore City on the first Wednesday morning of each month) and stars in the new film, Red, White and Brass. Based on the true story of Tongan rugby fans who created a brass band to support their national rugby team at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, it’s a ‘real feel-good film’, in true Suzy style.
“I play their music teacher,” she laughs, “which really did test my acting skills as I can’t get anything more than a raspberry out of a brass instrument.” It opened in cinemas in late March. “Every project that I choose to do now, has a positive spin on it,” she says.
One of these was Dancing with the Stars. The experience helped Suzy step into her own self-confidence, and she hopes it helped viewers too. “I’d once won a bronze for my waltz in a tartan dress made by my mum up in Kaikohe as a kid, and that was the only dancing I’d ever done before!  Steve and I didn’t even do a wedding dance, so it was right out of my comfort zone.
“I did Dancing with the Stars for all the real 50-somethings out there; those who don’t have the body or the confidence of your typical dancer. Imagine wearing a tight-fitting body suit with only a bunch of feathers on the back? It challenged my own sense of body image and my belief in myself. But I had so much fun doing it! That’s what it’s all about.”
Over the years, she’s learned that fun is what life’s all about, and helping lift others along the way. “As you get older, especially when you become a business owner, you learn to toughen up. Not in a ‘harden up’ kind of way, but in a way that you develop more confidence in yourself and your abilities. At the age of 55, I am feeling more comfortable in my skin. Ok, it sags and hangs a bit lower than it once did, but I’m grateful that it’s my skin. I love who I have become.
“Through all the challenges and pain that life throws your way, I’m able to look back and say, ‘Girl, you missed out on a whole lot of opportunities because you were not brave enough, you didn’t believe in yourself enough’. Now, I am making these opportunities for myself because I can, and because, yes, we all can.”