Ray Waru (born 1952) is a New Zealand Māori radio and television director and producer.
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Waru spent his childhood in Auckland. He was educated at St Peter's College.
Waru obtained positions in radio and television from the 1970s. In 1980, he headed the original Television New Zealand Māori production unit. Waru directed a broad range of Māori programmes, including the first ever full Māori language drama project, Te Ohaki a Nihe, and items on the Te Māori exhibition. In the 1980s Waru produced and directed a revolutionary documentary series, The Natural World of the Māori, various film and television productions in New Zealand and in Australia, as well as an IMAX production under the East-West Center in Hawaii. In the 1980s he was appointed as chief executive of the Aotearoa Māori Radio Trust, charged with the development of a national Māori radio system. In the 1990s Waru was co-producer of the major history series, Our People, Our Century, a winner at the 2000 New Zealand Film and TV Awards, and he produced Toro Mai, a 25-part serial drama in te reo.[1] In 2005 Waru co-produced the New Zealand historical series, Frontier of Dreams,The Story of New Zealand[2]