Randerson was born in
Auckland, New Zealand, in 1973 and moved to
Wellington when they were four years old. They studied at
Wellington Girls' College, and then went on to
Victoria University of Wellington to major in English, theatre and film. They wrote, directed and performed in theatre productions for the Victoria University of Wellington Student Drama Club. At the same time they also wrote for and performed at
BATS Theatre Wellington, and made television appearances as a stand-up comedian. After graduating, they co-founded the theatre group Trouble in 1995. Randerson's writing has been twice shortlisted for the IIML Prize (2006 and 2008), they have won
Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards and were nominated for the
Billy T Award in 2005. They have earned fellowships at home and abroad – they received the
Robert Burns Fellowship in 2001 (Dunedin), Winston Churchill Fellow 2003 (Russia) and completed a CNZ/DOC Wild Creations Residency in 2002 at Cape Kidnappers'. Randerson won the
Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1997 for their first play
Fold (part of the Young and Hungry season at BATS). They won the
Arts Foundation of New Zealand New Generation Award for Literature in 2008. Randerson's books
The Keys To Hell,
The Spit Children,
Tales From the Netherworld and
The Knot have all been critically acclaimed. Their work is characterized as dark social satire. In a review for
The Keys to Hell in
Landfall 209, Anna Smith wrote Randerson's world is a "holding tank" inside which we shriek, or remain terrified and mute witnesses to the despair that is life – a theme rehearsed over and over. Provocation, not subtlety, is the writer's special effect. In the
2021 New Year Honours, Randerson was appointed an
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the performing arts. ==Publications==