Kiwi star Vinnie Bennett attending the F9 premiere. Photo / Getty Images
The Kiwi actor makes things Instagram-official with model Maya Silwood.
Last month F9: The Fast Saga star, Vinnie Bennett, gave a sign to his Instagram followers he was off the market.
On Valentine’s Day he was dining with model Maya Silwood at trendy new eatery and rooftop bar Darling, on Drake St, in Victoria Park Market.
“Darling on Drake with darling with red love heart,” Bennett captioned a photo of Silwood.
Last week in a series of photos Silwood posted of “some summer bits and bobs” to Instagram, she included a loved-up picture with Bennett.
They appear to have been an item since at least last November, when they seemed to have eyes only for one another as they posed for cameras at the Auckland premiere of Taika Waititi’s film Next Goal Wins.
As well as being anointed part of the Fast and Furious world in 2021, Bennett, 31 , is one of Aotearoa’s most in-demand actors.
He became a recognisable face on television soap Filthy Rich last decade, back then he was part of an acting power couple when he dated former Shortland Street star Frankie Adams.
Since then, Bennett’s 2017 film Human Traces saw him selected for the prestigious TIFF Rising Stars programme in Toronto.
More recently he has starred in The Bad Seed, The Gulf, Kura and Good Grief.
In 2022 he starred as William Cooper in the feature film Whina about the life of Dame Whina Cooper.
Silwood, 22, is a model with 62 Management. Approached by Spy about the relationship, both 62 and Bennett’s management had no comment on the pair dating.
Spy understands she studied graphic design at Victoria University of Wellington and signed with 62 in 2022.
Silwood’s modelling career is off to a strong start; at the end of last year she appeared in a multi-page spread for local magazine Island, and she has worked with household-name brands like Mi Piaci, Stirling Sports and H&M.
Both Silwood and Bennett posted on social media about travel in Europe last year; according to Silwood’s Instagram she enjoyed a few months there, and Bennett’s Instagram places him in Portugal at the same time as Silwood last October.
Closer to home, Bennett has an exciting year coming up with two new Kiwi series.
He stars as David Jacobson on TVNZ+ series Testify; set in Kaikōura, when the town has already been divided by a catastrophic earthquake, it is about a family at the head of a mega-church. And, in the ThreeNow series Friends Like Her, Bennett stars as Rob in the psychological drama exploring a friendship that goes toxic when a surrogacy deal goes wrong.