Magda Szubanski AO has been famous for making Australia laugh for over three decades, but more recently she was named the Most Talked about Person of 2017 following what many have called her ‘crucial role’ in the complex and difficult 2017 Same-Sex Marriage Survey.
Sydney Morning Herald: “When describing her efforts, other equality advocates use terms such as ‘invaluable’ and ‘devastatingly effective’. But popularity alone does not change hearts or minds. What made a difference, they believe, is the way Szubanski campaigned.” She advocated tirelessly, making the case for equality with reason and dignity – her most notable appearances included a pivotal debate on the ABC’s Q&A, interviews on A Current Affair and an address she gave at the National Press Club, 'What it feels like to be an unwilling human guinea pig in a political experiment'. In 2012, Magda came out live on national TV and has been an active and high-profile campaigner for LGBTI+ rights ever since. She is patron of Twenty10, an ambassador for the Pinnacle Foundation and also volunteered for the Orlando Victims’ Fundraiser concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. She has spoken at numerous Marriage Equality fundraisers.
Vogue Australia included her in their list of 2018 “Game Changers” for her work on the Marriage Equality campaign.
Magda has received many accolades in the course of her career, including a Mo Award, seven Logie Awards, three Awgie Awards, two People’s Choice Awards, two Astra Awards and the AFI for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Australia’s favourite second-best friend, Sharon Strzelecki, a character she created herself. It has just been announced that she has been awarded the 2018 Victorian Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership by Women and Leadership Australia. She is also the 2018 recipient of the nation’s top free speech honour, the Voltaire Award, given by Australia’s oldest human rights organization, Liberty Victoria.
Magda completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University, majoring in Philosophy and Fine Arts. After early training with the ABC-TV cult show D-Generation, Magda shot to fame in 1989 in response to the huge variety of comic characters she created. For over thirty years Magda has survived and thrived at the top of the show business tree - a notoriously fickle and competitive industry. For three decades she has been a household name as one of Australia’s most loved and respected actors, writers and producers. She was a key player in some of this country’s most successful, iconic and groundbreaking shows - Kath and Kim, Fast Forward, D-Generation, and Big Girl’s Blouse, sketch comedy Fast Forward, which played for several seasons and became one of Australia’s highest-rating comedies. She had an emotional journey when the SBS television show Who Do you think You Are? did a story on her family’s heritage.
Film credits include Babe, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, alongside the late Steve Irwin and The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Australian films Dr Plonk directed by Rolf de Heer, Bran Nu Dae by Rachel Perkins and starring alongside Ronan Keating in the musical comedy, Goddess in 2013. In 2017 she starred opposite Michael Caton in Ben Elton’s Three Summers.
Magda’s many stage appearances include hit productions of Guys and Dolls, the late Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore, The Melbourne Theatre Company production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the national tour of Grease: The Arena Spectacular with John Farnham. In 2012 she performed alongside Geoffrey Rush and Hugh Sheridan in Simon Phillip’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
More recently she has become a best-selling, award-winning author, following the release of her internationally acclaimed memoir Reckoning. Released late 2015, Reckoning won a slew of literary awards including winner of the 2016 ABIA Book of the Year, Biography of the Year, Booksellers Choice Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Indie Award for Non-Fiction; Winner Victorian Community History Award and was shortlisted for several more awards including the National Biography Award.
Relating the story of her father’s activities as an assassin in Nazi-occupied Poland, Szubanski’s story of intergenerational trauma, migration and coming-of-age as a young gay woman received rave reviews.
The Australian described it as “a riveting, overwhelmingly poignant autobiography by a woman of genius…Every library should have it, every school should teach it.”
The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, ”This is documentary writing of the highest order…Anyone who doesn’t adore Magda Szubanski the clown will be awed by Szubanski the A-grade non-fiction writer.”
The Australian, “Brave, compassionate—and hilarious…some sort of masterpiece of the form.”
The Guardian, “She shines just as brightly as a serious writer as she does as a comedian.”
The BBC Woman’s Hour described it as “brilliant.”
Over the years Magda has campaigned for several charities including Very Special Kids, Starlight Foundation, Oxfam, and Royal Children’s Hospital.
She is a frequent guest on several television shows including The Today Show, Sunrise, ABC Breakfast, The Project, A Current Affair, The Morning Show, Mornings, Studio10 among others.
