Deborah Mailman

Background

Mailman grew up in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland. She is one of five children born to Wally Mailman, a famous rodeo rider and horseman, and Jane (Heeni) Mailman, the daughter of a preacher and talented musician.

Education

In 1992, she graduated from Queensland University of Technology Academy of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Performing Arts.

Career

She is well known for having played the character Kelly Lewis on successful Australian television series, The Secret Life of United States She is also well known for her current role as Cherie Butterfield in the successful Australian drama series Offspring. She starred in lead roles in the acclaimed films Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Sapphires, and Paper Planes.

She has both Indigenous Australian (Bidjara) and Māori (Ngati Porou and Te Arawa) heritage.

Since then she has worked extensively in Australian film, television and theater as well as many contributions overseas. Mailman played the role of Kate in a Louisiana Boite Theatre production of Shakespeare"s The Taming of the Shrew in 1994.

Other early stage roles include solo show The Seven Stages of Grieving (which she co-wrote with Wesley Enoch) for Kooemba Jdarra, Queensland Theatre Company"s 1997 revival of Louis Nowra"s play Radiance, and Cordelia in King Lear for Bell Shakespeare in 1998. She stayed during the shows entire duration (2001–2006).

Mailman was featured prominently in the Leah Purcell documentary Black Chicks Talking (2001), where she candidly discussed her thoughts about her Aboriginal heritage.

In 2006, she took part in a four-part television documentary series with Cathy Freeman called Going Bush, where the pair set off on a journey from Broome to Arnhem Land spending time with Indigenous communities along the way. She appeared in the Play School television series and was part of The Actors Company for the Sydney Theatre Company (2006–2007). She appeared in the film Rabbit-Proof Fence.

She played a lead role in the 2010 musical film Bran Nue Dae.

In the play The Sapphires and the subsequent film of the same name she played the role of singer Gail McCrae. She was awarded an Inside Film Award for her short film Ralph, which starred Madeleine Madden.

From 2010 to 2014, she played the role of Cherie Butterfield in Channel Ten"s Offspring drama series. In 2012, she starred in Redfern Now, an indigenous mini-series for the American Broadcasting Company. On 29 January 2015, Mailman co-hosted the AACTA Awards with Cate Blanchett.

AACTA Logie FCCA Helpmann Other awards.

Achievements

• She was the first Aboriginal actress to win the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and had gone on to win four more both in television and film. In 1998, Mailman made her film debut as Nona in the Australian independent film Radiance (based on the play), for which she won the American Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. From here she has since become one of Australia"s most prominent local actors especially through her lead role on The Secret Life of Us, a role for which she was twice awarded Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series at the Logies (2002 and 2004).