Miranda Tapsell
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Miranda Tapsell (born 11 December 1987) is a Larrakia
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
actress of both stage and screen, best known for her role as Cynthia in the Wayne Blair film '' The Sapphires'' and her 2015 performance as Martha Tennant in the
Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
drama series '' Love Child''. In 2016, she portrayed Fatima in the Stan series '' Wolf Creek''.


Early life

Tapsell was born in
Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...
, on 11 December 1987 to Tony and Barbara Tapsell. When she was five the family moved to
Jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has also been reported in Mississippi, Oklahoma ...
in West
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
, where she grew up around
Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...
. In 2004, when she was 16, Tapsell won the Bell Shakespeare Company regional performance scholarship. After finishing school she moved to Sydney to study at the
National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, it offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting ...
(NIDA) from where she graduated in 2008.


Career

Miranda's first stage appearance was at the Jabiru Wind Festival in September, 1999. She sang as a student with the Jabiru Area School Choir. Tapsell has been active both on stage and screen, starting with her 2008 performance in Dallas Winmar's play ''Yibiyung'' at the Belvoir Theatre, where she had the title role. In June 2010 she performed in ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
'' at the Old Town Hall Ruins, Darwin. Later in that year she appeared as Ngala in Kamarra Bell-Wykes' ''Mother's Tongue'' at the Yirra Yaakin Theatre in Perth, a play about a young woman's connection to her Indigenous heritage. 2012 saw Tapsell as Bonita in the mini-series '' Mabo'' and then in the breakthrough role of Cynthia McRae, one of '' The Sapphires'', Wayne Blair's film about a group of four Indigenous singers during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
era. Tapsell topped the year off with her appearance as Teneka in the second episode of the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
's ''
Redfern Now ''Redfern Now'' is an Australian drama television series featuring the lives of Aboriginal Australian families living in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, Sydney, that first aired on ABC1 in 2012. A second season followed in 2013, and the ser ...
''. Back in the theatre in 2013, Tapsell played a dual role (as Gillyagan and Muruli) in Andrew Bovell's ''
The Secret River ''The Secret River'' is a 2005 historical novel by Kate Grenville about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aborigi ...
'' at the Sydney Theatre, a performance which earned her a nomination for the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play. In 2014 Tapsell took on the role of Elizabeth, a young Indigenous woman, for a short film called ''Vote Yes'' which looked at issues around the
1967 referendum Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
on including Aboriginal peoples in the census. The film was screened by the Recognise campaign, the movement seeking to recognise Indigenous Australians in the
Australian Constitution The Constitution of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Constitution) is the fundamental law that governs the political structure of Australia. It is a written constitution, which establishes the country as a Federation of Australia, ...
. She appeared in four episodes of the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
sketch programme ''
Black Comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
''. On the stage she played "Tiny Tim" Cratchit for a performance of
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
's ''
A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...
'' at the Belvoir Theatre. While she was playing Tiny Tim at night, she was rehearsing for her next performance as a woman called Nona, who finds out her oldest sister is really her mother, in
Louis Nowra Mark Doyle, better known by his stage name Louis Nowra, (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights. His works have been performed by all o ...
's ''
Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiati ...
'', also, conveniently, at the Belvoir Theatre. Also in 2014 Tapsell became a member of the cast of the Channel 9 drama series '' Love Child'', set in the 1960s. Her role is as an unmarried pregnant Indigenous woman, Martha Tennant, who ends up in a ward with several other unwed women in a fictitious hospital in Sydney's King's Cross at a time when it was taboo to be pregnant and not married. Her performance was extremely well received, garnering two
Logies The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The event is telecast live and b ...
in May 2015, Best New Talent and the Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding Newcomer. On reception of the first she urged the relevant people in the audience to "Put more beautiful people of colour on TV and connect viewers in ways which transcend race and unite us," adding, "That's the real team Australia." In 2016 she played Juliet in Justin Fleming's '' The Literati'' for Bell Shakespeare and Griffin's historic co-production of
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
's ''
Les Femmes Savantes ''Les Femmes savantes'' (, ''The Learned Ladies'') is a comedy by Molière in five acts, written in verse. A satire on academic pretension, female education, and '' préciosité'' (French for preciosity), it was one of his most popular comedies ...
''. In 2017, 2018 and again in 2019 Tapsell starred as Charlotte Gibson in the Sydney Theatre Company production from playwright Nakkiah Lui, ''Black is the New White.'' Her role is a lawyer with a brilliant career who brings her non-Indigenous, unemployed experimental composer fiancé home to meet her family at Christmas. Tapsell wrote a contribution entitled "Nobody Puts Baby Spice in a Corner" for the 2018 biographical anthology '' Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia'', edited by
Anita Heiss Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her memb ...
and published by
Black Inc Schwartz Publishing is an Australian publishing house, digital media, and news media organisation based in Melbourne, established by Australian property developer Morry Schwartz in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s many of its publications have a ...
. In April 2020 Tapsell's memoir, ''Top End Girl,'' was published by Hachette Australia. In 2021 Tapsell was the co-host of the live television special '' Australia's Biggest Singalong!'' with
Julia Zemiro Julia Zemiro () (born 14 April 1967) is a French-born Australian television presenter, radio host, actress, singer, writer and comedian. She is best known as the host of the music quiz and live performance show ''RocKwiz''. Zemiro is a fluent E ...
. In 2024, Tapsell was named to reprise the role of Lauren Ford for the television series ''Top End Bub,'' which is a spin off from the movie ''Top End Wedding''.


Personal life

Tapsell is a Larrakia woman and lives in Melbourne with her husband, James Colley. The couple have a daughter, born in December 2021.


Filmography


Film


Television


Unscripted


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tapsell, Miranda 1987 births Australian film actresses Australian women memoirists Australian stage actresses Australian television actresses Indigenous Australian actresses Living people Logie Award winners National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni People from Darwin, Northern Territory 21st-century Australian actresses Larrakia people