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Shari Sebbens

Shari Sebbens is an Aboriginal Australian actress, theatre director, and singer of Bardi and Jabirr-Jabirr descent, born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory. She rose to prominence with her feature film debut as Kay in The Sapphires (2012), followed by television roles earning her the 2013 Logie Award for Most Outstanding New Talent for Redfern Now. Her screen credits include supporting roles in Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok (2017) as the Mother and the lead in The Moogai (2021), which premiered at Sundance and won audience awards at festivals. Sebbens trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2009, later becoming the Sydney Theatre Company's Richard Wherrett Fellow in 2019 and Resident Artist from 2021 to 2024. Transitioning to directing, she made her debut with Superheroes at Griffin Theatre Company in 2020 and has helmed productions including Fences, for which she received the 2023 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Direction of a Mainstage Production. Early in her career, at age 19, she was selected for the Australia Council's SPARK mentorship program, marking her entry into professional theatre. Her work spans film, television, and stage, often emphasizing Indigenous narratives, with additional credits in series like The Heights and Deadloch.

Early life and background

Family and heritage

Shari Sebbens was born in Darwin, Northern Territory, as one of six siblings to a father of English descent from Sydney, who worked as a long-distance coach driver, and a mother named Annarella, an Aboriginal education worker originally from Broome, Western Australia. Sebbens' matrilineal heritage derives from her mother's Bardi and Jabirr-Jabirr Indigenous ancestry, with her father's non-Indigenous background resulting in her fair-skinned appearance, a trait frequently observed in biographical accounts. Annarella's professional focus on Aboriginal and Islander education provided a foundational emphasis on learning and self-improvement within the family, shaping early influences without documented ties to historical assimilation policies like the Stolen Generations for Sebbens' direct lineage.

Childhood and upbringing

Shari Sebbens was born and raised primarily in Darwin, Northern Territory, one of six children in a rambunctious household that reflected the multicultural fabric of Australia's Top End, blending Indigenous traditions with influences from her mixed heritage. Her mother, an Aboriginal and Islander education worker of Bardi and Jabirr-Jabirr descent from the Broome area, instilled cultural pride, while her father, of English ancestry from Sydney and formerly a long-distance coach driver, contributed to a dynamic family environment. Sebbens also spent portions of her early years in Broome and Nhulunbuy, a remote Arnhem Land community of around 4,000 residents, broadening her exposure to diverse Indigenous networks. From a young age, Sebbens encountered storytelling and performance through familial ties to community arts, including backstage access at age eight to her uncle Jimmy Chi's musical Bran Nue Dae, a vibrant celebration of Aboriginal life that resonated with her identity. Extended relatives, such as cousin Mitch Torres (a writer and director) and other dancers, further embedded creative expression in her surroundings, independent of structured education. These influences aligned with the Top End's rich oral and performative traditions amid its ethnic diversity, shaping her formative worldview without evident personal adversities. Sebbens has characterized the women in her family as "amazing" and "hilarious," underscoring humor as a core survival mechanism and source of resilience in their lives, a perspective she echoes in valuing laughter amid challenges. Her parents supported nascent interests despite their own generational constraints, fostering curiosity evident in childhood dreams of becoming a palaeontologist or astronaut, reflective of an adventurous spirit unmarred by trauma narratives in available accounts.

Education and training

Sebbens began her formal performing arts training at age 20, when she was accepted into the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2006. There, she completed a one-year Certificate III course in Aboriginal Theatre, which provided intensive instruction in acting, improvisation, dance, stage movement, voice, singing, and script analysis tailored to Indigenous performance practices. Following her WAAPA studies, Sebbens auditioned successfully for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and enrolled in its three-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) program. She graduated from NIDA in 2009, having developed advanced skills in dramatic interpretation and stagecraft that emphasized culturally resonant techniques for Indigenous actors. This progression from specialized Aboriginal-focused training at WAAPA to comprehensive acting education at NIDA equipped her with foundational expertise for professional roles highlighting Indigenous narratives.

Career trajectory

Breakthrough in screen acting

Sebbens made her screen debut in 2012 as Kay McCrae in the Australian film The Sapphires, directed by Wayne Blair, portraying a fair-skinned Aboriginal woman estranged from her family due to childhood removal under assimilation-era policies. The role drew on historical realities of forced separations in Indigenous communities, with Kay depicted as culturally disconnected yet reclaiming her heritage through music during the Vietnam War era. The film achieved commercial success as a box-office hit, grossing over A$15 million domestically and contributing to Sebbens' rapid rise in visibility within the Australian industry. Concurrently, Sebbens appeared in the ABC television series Redfern Now (2012), playing Julie, a character navigating everyday struggles in an urban Indigenous community marked by economic hardship and familial tensions. Her performance emphasized authentic interpersonal dynamics and survival challenges over abstract advocacy, aligning with the series' focus on unvarnished socio-economic conditions in Sydney's Redfern area. This early work culminated in industry recognition with the 2013 Logie Award for Most Outstanding New Talent, awarded for her Redfern Now role at the TV Week Logie Awards on April 7, 2013, signaling breakthrough validation in a field dominated by established performers. The win, unexpected even to Sebbens, underscored empirical metrics of peer and audience acclaim amid limited opportunities for emerging Indigenous actors.

Expansion into theatre

Following her screen debut in The Sapphires in 2012, Sebbens expanded her stage work with roles that drew on her National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) training to deliver nuanced live performances, emphasizing immediacy and audience interaction inherent to theatre. In 2015, she portrayed Mae, the dutiful middle sister in Louis Nowra's Radiance at Belvoir St Theatre, a production reuniting three Indigenous sisters for their mother's funeral and exploring themes of family obligation, loss, and cultural disconnection in Queensland's Indigenous communities. Her interpretation highlighted Mae's emotional exhaustion from caregiving, contributing to the play's focus on intergenerational trauma without reducing characters to stereotypes. By the mid-2010s, Sebbens progressed to more prominent roles at major companies like the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), demonstrating versatility beyond Indigenous-centric narratives. In Patrick White's A Cheery Soul (STC, 2018), she joined an ensemble critiquing and through the disruptive figure of Thoreau, leveraging the play's to showcase her command of period-specific dialogue and physicality in live settings. This non-Indigenous role underscored her range, avoiding while maintaining authenticity derived from her foundation. A pivotal lead came in Nakkiah Lui's Black is the New White (initially at Carriageworks in 2017, later STC seasons), where Sebbens played Charlotte Gibson, a lawyer navigating interracial family tensions, political ambition, and Indigenous identity during a chaotic Christmas gathering. The production blended comedy of manners with pointed examinations of reconciliation-era Australia, allowing Sebbens to evolve her craft through rapid scene shifts and direct audience engagement, themes of cultural hybridity, and resistance to assimilation. Her performance as Charlotte emphasized agency and wit, marking a shift from supporting parts to central figures that integrated personal heritage with broader societal critique.

Transition to directing and writing

In 2019, Sebbens transitioned from acting to directing upon her appointment as the Sydney Theatre Company's Richard Wherrett Fellow, a program established to nurture emerging directors through hands-on experience, mentorship, and production attachments. This role marked her deliberate shift toward creative authority behind the camera, beginning with her directorial debut on The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, a one-woman play structured around the Kübler-Ross grief model to convey Indigenous mourning and resilience in the face of historical trauma. The production, staged at the STC's Wharf 2 Theatre from September to October 2019, allowed Sebbens to interpret narratives rooted in Aboriginal experiences without intermediary filters, enabling a directorial approach grounded in cultural specificity rather than generalized outsider perspectives. Building on this foundation, Sebbens advanced to resident director at the STC by 2022, overseeing multiple mainstage productions that expanded her command over ensemble dynamics and thematic depth. In 2023, she directed August Wilson's Fences, a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examining familial conflict and racial barriers in mid-20th-century America, which ran at the STC from March to May and featured a cast navigating Wilson's Pulitzer-recognized dialogue on generational trauma. That year, she also co-directed Aleshea Harris's Is God Is, a revenge tragedy about twin sisters confronting their abusive past, in collaboration with Zindzi Okenyo; the production premiered at STC in July before transferring to Melbourne Theatre Company, highlighting Sebbens' ability to helm structurally innovative works with heightened emotional stakes. Additionally, she directed Blaque Show Girls for Griffin Theatre Company, a play interrogating identity and performance in Black women's experiences, further demonstrating her focus on marginalized voices through precise staging and actor collaboration. Sebbens' directorial oeuvre emphasizes authorship over Indigenous stories to counteract industry tendencies toward external framing, which can obscure causal links between historical policies—like forced child removals—and contemporary outcomes; by helming such works, she prioritizes unmediated depictions drawn from lived communal knowledge, fostering narratives that align empirical realities with authentic agency rather than stylized approximations. This approach, evident from her early fellowship projects onward, underscores a broader causal dynamic: internal directorial control mitigates distortions from non-Indigenous intermediaries, enabling clearer conveyance of intergenerational effects without reliance on abstracted or agenda-driven interpretations prevalent in subsidized arts sectors.

Notable works

Film roles

Sebbens debuted in feature films as Kay, a light-skinned Aboriginal woman separated from her family under Australia's Stolen Generations policies, in The Sapphires (2012), a drama depicting four Indigenous sisters forming a Motown-style singing group to entertain troops in Vietnam. The film earned a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 138 reviews and grossed over AU$10 million in Australia, marking it as one of the year's top local releases. Critics offered divided assessments of her performance; while some highlighted her strength in conveying familial tension and cultural disconnection, others described the role as underwritten, limiting her impact amid the ensemble cast. She followed with supporting roles in independent Australian features, including Annuska, a troubled teen's guardian, in Teenage Kicks (2016), and Sonya Mackenzie in the ensemble drama Australia Day (2017), which explored intersecting lives on a national holiday. Sebbens appeared in minor capacities in Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok (2017) as an Asgardian mother and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) as an Asgardian, contributing to the blockbuster franchises' ensemble scenes without prominent narrative focus. In Top End Wedding (2019), a romantic comedy about an Indigenous woman's rushed preparations for marriage, Sebbens portrayed Ronelle, a family friend, in a cast noted for strong chemistry and authentic Northern Territory portrayals; the film secured an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score. Her most recent lead came as Sarah, a pregnant Aboriginal lawyer confronting a child-stealing supernatural entity evocative of historical assimilation traumas, in the horror film The Moogai (2024). The picture received a 50% Rotten Tomatoes rating from 40 reviews and a 5.4/10 on IMDb from 626 users, with Sebbens' performance drawing praise for its intensity and emotional layering from select critics, though some early festival feedback cited struggles with the character's underdeveloped arcs.

Television roles

Sebbens first gained significant television recognition for her portrayal of Julie Johnson, a young Arrernte woman grappling with domestic violence and cultural disconnection, in the ABC anthology series Redfern Now (2012). The series depicted interconnected stories of urban Aboriginal families in Sydney's Redfern suburb, drawing from real socio-economic pressures. Her performance, noted for its raw emotional depth, secured the peer-voted Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent at the 55th Logie Awards on April 7, 2013. Subsequent credits include the role of Leonie Walsh (later Farrell), a resilient mother involved in custody battles and community tensions, in the ABC soap opera The Heights across its two seasons (2019–2020), which explored multicultural urban family conflicts in Melbourne. She provided voice work as multiple characters, including Sissy and Dee, in the children's animated series Little J & Big Cuz (2017–2023), focusing on Indigenous cultural education for young audiences over four seasons. In more recent projects, Sebbens appeared as Greta King in the Australian adaptation of The Office (Paramount+, 2024), contributing to workplace satire, and took on acting and directing duties in Top End Bub (Prime Video, premiered September 12, 2025), a comedy-drama series about unexpected guardianship in the Northern Territory that highlighted remote Indigenous family dynamics; she directed the episode "Sisters." Other episodic roles encompass Tracy in the Stan miniseries Thou Shalt Not Steal (2024) and appearances in sketch comedy Black Comedy (ABC, 2014) and drama The Gods of Wheat Street (ABC, 2015).

Stage productions

Sebbens' early stage acting credits reflected her National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) training, emphasizing roles in Australian plays exploring Indigenous themes. In an unspecified production following her 2011 NIDA graduation, she performed in works that honed her theatre skills amid her rising screen profile. She appeared in Radiance at Belvoir Street Theatre, sharing the cast with Leah Purcell and Miranda Tapsell in a production highlighting personal and cultural narratives. Additional acting roles included The Bleeding Tree for Griffin Theatre Company, where she portrayed the Daughter during runs in 2015 at Stables Theatre, Sydney, and 2017 at Wharf Theatre in collaboration with Sydney Theatre Company (STC). Transitioning to directing, Sebbens served as STC Resident Director from 2021 to 2024, overseeing productions that often centered Indigenous and familial dynamics. In 2021, she directed The Seven Stages of Grieving for STC, adapting Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's work on loss and identity, and Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner for Darlinghurst Theatre Company, addressing racial and digital-age tensions. The following year, she helmed City of Gold by Meyne Wyatt at STC, featuring Wyatt alongside Mathew Cooper, St John Cowcher, and Simone Page, which examined intergenerational trauma through a contemporary lens. Her 2023 directing season marked a prolific phase across multiple companies, co-helming or leading several mainstage works. She co-directed Is God Is by Aleshea Harris for Melbourne Theatre Company and STC with Zindzi Okenyo, a revenge drama blending hip-hop influences and familial retribution. For Griffin Theatre Company, Sebbens directed Blaque Showgirls, a piece reimagining showgirl tropes through Black and Indigenous perspectives. At STC, she staged August Wilson's Fences, earning the 2023 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Direction of a Mainstage Production for her interpretation of barriers in African American family life, adapted to resonate with broader marginalization experiences. This output aligned with her STC residency commitments, spanning collaborations in Sydney and Melbourne.

Awards and recognition

Major accolades

Sebbens won the Award for Most Outstanding New Talent at the 2013 TV Week for her portrayal of Julie in the series . This peer-voted category, determined by industry professionals rather than public ballot, recognizes breakthrough performances by emerging actors and underscores Sebbens' rapid ascent in Australian television, distinguishing her among contemporaries through demonstrated skill in a critically acclaimed Indigenous-led drama. In recognition of her transition to directing, Sebbens was selected as the Sydney Theatre Company's Richard Wherrett Fellow in February 2019. This merit-based residency, named after the company's founding artistic director, supports emerging directors via intensive mentorship, script development, and production opportunities, with recipients chosen for their proven artistic vision and potential to contribute to Australian theatre; Sebbens' appointment positioned her alongside a select cadre of theatre practitioners advancing through peer-evaluated talent rather than institutional quotas. Sebbens also shared in ensemble honors, including the Equity Guild's Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award for Redfern Now in 2013, highlighting collective excellence in a series that earned multiple peer and jury accolades for its authentic depiction of urban Indigenous life. These achievements reflect her standing as a versatile artist whose contributions have been validated by industry bodies prioritizing performance quality and innovation.

Nominations and fellowships

Sebbens received a nomination for the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Newcomer in 2012 for her performance in the play A Hoax, recognizing her early stage work at the Griffin Theatre Company. In 2023, she earned a nomination for Best Direction of a Mainstage Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards for directing August Wilson's Fences at the State Theatre Company of South Australia, highlighting her growing reputation in theatre direction. In February 2019, Sebbens was selected as the Sydney Theatre Company's Richard Wherrett Fellow, a competitive program offering emerging directors practical training, including shadowing established directors, script development support, and opportunities to helm productions. This fellowship provided tangible resources such as dedicated time for skill-building and access to professional networks, enabling Sebbens to direct her first major work, Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The 7 Stages of Grieving, later that year and marking a key step in her shift from acting to directing. The role extended into residency positions, fostering sustained career advancement through hands-on experience rather than mere honorary status.

Public engagement and views

Advocacy for Indigenous representation

Sebbens has advocated for greater control over narratives by transitioning into directing roles that prioritize authentic, self-determined storytelling. In directing productions such as (2023) for the and Black Swan State Theatre Company, she emphasized creating a "safe cultural space" for actors, adjusting staging to honor their lived experiences and arguing that a non- director might not effectively channel the emotional depth required for such works. She has similarly helmed The 7 Stages of Grieving (2021) and co-directed Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (2021), focusing on contemporary plays that center non-white perspectives and avoid centering whiteness. Her push against storytelling through a "white lens" includes calls for theatre companies to hire at least one well-supported staff member when producing related works, to foster safe environments that enable creatives to reach full potential without feeling tokenized or burdened as sole representatives. Sebbens has highlighted a positive shift over the past 15 years, where Aboriginal has increasingly removed external filters, allowing writers and directors to lead. Addressing barriers like sexism and racism in the industry, Sebbens has stated she entered acting from an empowered position and rejected such dynamics, crediting the move toward Indigenous-led stories for enabling complex roles beyond stereotypes. Her efforts align with broader gains, such as First Nations main characters in Australian TV drama rising from 4.8% in 2016 to 7.2% by 2021, reflecting increased on-screen visibility. However, underrepresentation persists in off-screen crew roles (3.0% First Nations in recent data versus 6.6% on-screen), underscoring the need for continued advocacy in training and leadership positions to sustain authentic representation.

Statements on cultural and political issues

Sebbens has publicly rejected celebrating Australia Day on January 26, associating the date with Invasion Day and the unacknowledged "horrible side" of Australian history, including racial tensions and dispossession. She typically attends Invasion Day rallies, framing participation as a protest and communal act of reflection, involving raising black flags, playing music, and sharing historical narratives with her "mob" or community, while acknowledging that not all Indigenous people can join due to work or personal reasons. In advocating for a change to the date, Sebbens has stated, "Change the date but also change the system," arguing that symbolic shifts alone fail to resolve persistent disparities in Indigenous literacy rates, life expectancy, incarceration, and institutional racism. She contends that the 2008 national apology to the Stolen Generations fostered a false assumption of achieved equality, emphasizing instead the need for broader education on history to build awareness. This perspective contrasts with defenses of the date's ties to 1788 settlement, which enabled federation in 1901—a legal unification that created a stable democratic federation, fostering economic growth from a GDP per capita of around £70 in 1901 to over £1,000 by 1930 (in contemporary terms) through resource development and trade, while establishing institutions that later supported Indigenous rights expansions like the 1967 referendum. Sebbens has described Indigenous humor as a survival strategy amid colonization, noting that "that's how we've survived 200-something years of colonisation, we laugh at you mob and we laugh at ourselves," positioning self-deprecating and observational comedy as resilience against historical oppression. Her starring role in the 2024 horror film The Moogai reflects a personal engagement with Stolen Generations trauma, portraying a mother haunted by intergenerational effects of child removal policies active from circa 1910 to 1970, which she links to ongoing Indigenous experiences through storytelling that blends folklore with historical critique. These policies aimed at assimilation and child protection—responding to documented high Indigenous infant mortality rates exceeding 200 per 1,000 in some regions during the era—versus claims of deliberate cultural erasure, with empirical estimates from the 1997 Bringing Them Home inquiry indicating 10-33% of Indigenous children (roughly 100,000 total) were removed, though precise figures vary due to archival gaps and non-systematic application. Long-term outcomes data reveal mixed effects: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare analyses show Stolen Generations survivors facing elevated risks of poor health, higher incarceration (up to 2-3 times non-removed peers), and social disconnection, attributed to disrupted family ties, yet longitudinal studies note some gained literacy and employment advantages absent in untreated neglect cases, underscoring causal complexities beyond uniform victimization narratives.

Controversies and debates

Casting authenticity discussions

Sebbens, whose mother is of Bardi and Jabirr-Jabirr heritage and whose father is of English descent, has described herself as the "white sheep of the family" and anticipated early in her career that her fair complexion would limit her to non-Indigenous roles, stating she always thought she would have to "play white." This personal experience aligns with broader industry patterns where fair-skinned Indigenous actors, despite verifiable ancestry, encounter barriers in securing roles intended to depict traditional or visibly "Aboriginal" characters. In The Sapphires (2012), Sebbens portrayed Kay, a light-skinned Yorta Yorta woman removed from her family as part of the Stolen Generations due to her appearance, a role that directly drew on historical cases of fair-complexioned Indigenous children being assimilated into white society under government policies from the early 20th century to the 1970s. The character's backstory underscores empirical realities of mixed-ancestry phenotypes among Indigenous Australians, resulting from generations of intermarriage following European contact, with genetic studies indicating high rates of European admixture in many communities—often exceeding 50% in urban or southern populations. Casting debates have intensified around such actors, with reports from 2013 highlighting exclusions of Indigenous performers from culturally specific roles because they were deemed "not black enough," a criterion enforced in auditions and funding allocations tied to Indigenous quotas by bodies like Screen Australia. Proponents of strict authenticity argue this safeguards cultural integrity, preventing dilution of representation by those whose appearance might confuse audiences or undermine narratives of historical marginalization, particularly in taxpayer-funded projects aimed at amplifying underrepresented voices. Critics counter that phenotype-based purity tests impose reverse , sidelining qualified talent and distorting depictions of , where fair skin tones are common outcomes of colonial-era unions rather than inauthentic claims; this approach, they contend, prioritizes visual stereotypes over documented lineage and , potentially reducing the pool of viable in a sector already constrained by limited opportunities. Such practices have been linked to broader tensions in arts funding, where emphasis on "visibly authentic" may inadvertently replicate exclusionary logics akin to those of the Stolen Generations policies, favoring uniformity over the heterogeneous realities of Australia's populations.

Reviewer and industry critique incidents

In February 2023, Shari Sebbens, serving as co-director alongside Zindzi Okenyo for the Malthouse Theatre production of Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner in Melbourne, announced a policy restricting formal reviews to critics identifying as people of color. The play, which examines themes of colorism, cultural appropriation, and queer identity through the lens of two friends amid a social media controversy, drew this measure to counteract the scarcity of diverse voices in arts criticism, citing a 2019 Diversity Arts Australia report that found 63% of Australian performing arts organizations lacked culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) leadership. Sebbens and collaborators, including community engagement consultant Moreblessing Maturure, justified the approach as a bold action to ensure critiques aligned with audiences' lived experiences rather than external interpretations potentially influenced by unshared perspectives. The policy elicited immediate industry resistance, with newspaper opting not to review the production and characterizing the restriction as tokenistic, while two reviews from white critics were subsequently withdrawn from publication. A related cartoon in depicting the scenario was criticized as offensive, leading to a formal from the publication. Sebbens maintained that the initiative prioritized substantive opportunity over performative inclusion, though the creative team acknowledged the emotional strain of ensuing public scrutiny. This incident built on Sebbens' prior advocacy for structural changes in theatre, as articulated in a 2018 collective critique published by The Guardian, where she urged companies to employ at least one well-supported Indigenous staff member to cultivate safe environments for First Nations artists and mitigate the invalidation of Indigenous narratives in predominantly non-Indigenous settings. She argued that such hiring would enable year-round audience expansion beyond short-term Indigenous-focused seasons, fostering environments where creative potential is not stifled by unshared room dynamics. The policy's reception fueled broader discussions on whether race-based reviewer selection enhances thematic authenticity or restricts critical pluralism, with the production achieving positive notices from compliant outlets despite the controversy, yet prompting questions about long-term effects on industry-wide engagement.

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