Celeste Wong attended St Hilda’s from 1993-1997. Since leaving school, she has followed several different interests, including acting, fashion and coffee artistry, and in 2007 moved to London where she lives currently. Celeste produces a coffee, travel and lifestyle blog called ‘The Girl in the Cafe’ - her website of the same name features a video series where she interviews hospitality leaders and customers, and also offers an online shop. She also consults for brands and cafes, and runs barista workshops and offers training to those in the hospitality industry. Celeste has been named as one of London’s Top Five baristas by The Financial Times.
After leaving St Hilda’s, Celeste studied at Otago University, starting with accounting. Her parents had hoped she would follow a ‘sensible’ path to a career in accounting, medicine or law. But Celeste was uninspired by the accounting course, so she secretly enrolled to do design, graduating with an Honours degree in Design and Commerce. After graduation she started working in fashion, helping to produce fashion shows and becoming more and more interested in the world of the arts and design. She also started to pursue an interest in acting, enrolling in acting classes and getting experience in student films and going to casting calls.
A move to London in 2007 saw Celeste working at the famous Flat White cafe in Soho. There she met Chris Turner, a film director and fellow coffee connoisseur. They became friends and went on to co-create an art film, G(O)OD+(D)EVIL. Celeste had a supporting role in the New Zealand film My Wedding and Other Secrets which won a number of awards internationally and was the highest grossing New Zealand film of that year.
Currently, Celeste is working on an exciting project - developing her own brand of coffee beans.