Sir Richard Taylor has been named the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.

The Weta Workshop founder was crowned at a gala dinner in Auckland last night.

The Wellingtonian beat Doctor Sharad Paul, a skin cancer specialist who also runs a bookstore that benefits low decile schools, and Dame Suzie Moncrieff, who started the World of Wearable Art competition.

Sir Richard is described as an extraordinary New Zealander who's set a shining example by being a global player in the international movie industry, but decidedly choosing to base himself in New Zealand.

Weta employs well over 1,000 people and earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Despite his enormous list of Hollywood successes and multiple Oscars, the work he is most proud of is the TV series "Jane and the Dragon", whose message is "girls can do anything".

Sir Richard says he got a nice surprise when he pulled into the workshop this morning.

"I just arrived at the workshop and the whole crew were out in the carpark celebrating so that was lovely to come home to that and share the award with everyone."

Sir Richard says now the ceremony's over, he's looking forward to getting back to Middle Earth, working on the Hobbit.

Sam Johnson, the Canterbury University student who organised the Student Army that helped thousands shovel liquefaction after the earthquakes, was named Young New Zealander of the Year.

In accepting the award, he paid tribute to the hundreds of students who were part of the army saying they are his heroes.

The 23-year-old travelled to Japan after their major earthquake and tsunami to help universities there set up similar armies to help with the clean-up.

Sam Johnson says the award's an honour and he encourages others to look at what they can do to help their community.

He says his favourite quote from Dr Seuss is where he gets his inspiration:

"With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street."

He says the award is not just about him.

"Everyone who helped so, so much over the past 18 months and helped for Christchurch," he says.

He's now organising a major concert for Christchurch but he can't say much about it at this stage.

"It will be in late September and all the details are very finely under wraps and still developing well but we want to get 5,000 young volunteers. The sort of people who have never been volunteering before, get them out and about, get them out on the streets in Christchurch and doing something to support the community.

Photo: Richard Taylor at the 2004 Oscars (Getty Images)