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 Theatres Ensemble Project 08 the Auckland Theatre Companys 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