She was part of the Maidment Youth Theatre at the University of Auckland and in 2000 graduated from the New Zealand drama school Toi Whakaari with a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting).
They also created and present the Māori Television show, Game of Bros.[2][6] Polataivao worked as acting tutor at PIPA (Pacific Institute of Performing Arts) until PIPA closed at the end of 2017 when the BEST Pacific Institute of Education went into liquidation.
[2][7] A theatre play directed by Polataivao, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt by Tusiata Avia was re-worked in 2016 from a solo to an ensemble cast creating an award-winning production that went on to be presented at the New Zealand Festival in 2018, a national New Zealand tour in 2019 and at the SoHo Playhouse in New York off-Broadway in January 2020.
[8][9][10][11] In 2024 she starred in Tinā as a dissatisfied substitute teacher, recently bereaved after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, who begins working at an elite private school and starts a student choir.
[20] In the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours, Polataivao was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Pacific performing arts.