Madeleine was raised in the Onehunga suburb of Auckland, New Zealand; and attended Onehunga High School. She is of Irish and Fiji Indian heritage. Madeleine starred in the long running New Zealand soap Shortland Street from 1998 to 1999, and more recently in the comedy film Sione's Wedding. She is an accomplished theatre Actress and toured internationally with the shows BARE and No2 for which she won two Chapman Tripp awards and an Edinburgh fringe first award. She has since featured in various New Zealand television shows including Outrageous Fortune, The Jaquie Brown Diaries, 7 Days and the Jane Campion series, Top of the Lake.
In 2011 Madeleine starred in her own comedy series, Super City, directed by Taika Waititi. She won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2011 AFTA awards for this role. She also won, with co-writer Thomas Sainsbury, Best Comedy Script at the 2011 SWANZ awards for Episode 3 of the series.
In January 2015, Sami married Pip Brown, also known as the singer-songwriter Ladyhawke.
