About the show

Multi-award winning Deborah Mailman is one of Australia’s most celebrated actors, with television credits including Cleverman, Bonita Mabo in the critically acclaimed Mabo, Offspring, The Secret Life of Us, Redfern Now and the telemovie finale of Redfern Now. 

Acclaimed for her portrayal of Nona in the film Radiance, Deborah’s extensive film credits include Bran Nue Dae, Dear Claudia, The Monkey’s Mask, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Book of Revelation, Lucky Miles, Mental, The Darkside, Oddball, Paper Planes, Blinky Bill, as well as the internationally acclaimed The Sapphires.

On stage, Deborah has appeared in numerous productions with theatre companies including Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir and Queensland Theatre Company.

Big Cuz

Miranda Tapsell is a proud Larrakia Woman from Darwin. She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2008 and has built a strong career in film, theatre and television.

Miranda is well known for her performance in the multi-award winning feature film The Sapphires, and for her role in TV drama Love Child, for which she has won two Logie Awards.

Miranda starred in the popular ABC TV series Redfern Now and Black Comedy. Other television credits include Mabo, Who We Are, Secret City, Wolf Creek (the series) and Cleverman. She recently debuted in the perennial favourite children’s series,
Play School and the spin off, Maurice’s Big Adventure. Her most recent feature is Warwick Thornton’s Words with Gods.

Miranda recently appeared in Griffin Theatre’s co-production with Bell Shakespeare The Literati, and two Belvoir Street Theatre productions, A Christmas Carol and Radiance. Other remarkable stage performances include Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River for which she received a Helpmann Award Nomination, I Am Eora for Sydney Festival, Rainbow’s End for Riverside Theatre, Mother’s Tongue for Yirra Yakin Theatre Company, and the lead in Yibiyung for Belvoir Street Theatre.

Little J

Ningali Lawford-Wolf is a stage and screen actress, known for her roles in seminal Australian films including Rabbit Proof Fence, Bran Nue Dae and Last Cab to Darwin, for which she was nominated for the AACTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Born in Western Australia, Ningali trained at the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Sydney, before creating her revelatory solo stage show Ningali, co-written with Robyn Archer and Angela Chaplin. It toured internationally, winning the Fringe First Award for Best New Production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her next stage show Black and Tran, a collaboration with Vietnamese comedian Hung Lee, premiered at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, before touring for three years across Australia.

Throughout 2016 Ningali toured with the Sydney Theatre Company’s multi-award winning landmark production of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, adapted for the stage and directed by Andrew Bovell. It sold out across the country, and was received with great critical acclaim. 

Ningali has received the Australian Centenary Medal in the Queens New Year Honours List for her services to Indigenous Performing Arts.

Nanna

Aaron Fa’Aoso is an Australian actor well known for his roles in critically acclaimed and ground breaking television, including ABC’s Black Comedy and The Straits, and SBS series R.A.N. and East West 101. Other television credits include the German series Munchen 7, City Homicide, Sea Patrol, Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms and Hyde & Seek. His feature film credits include Subdivision, directed by Sue Brooks, and Ivan Sen’s Goldstone, which opened the 2016 Sydney Film Festival.

Aaron received nominations for an AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Drama and a Logie Award for Most Outstanding New Talent for his work on R.A.N. He received a 2011 Monte Carlo TV Festival award nomination for Most Outstanding Actor, and an AACTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor for East West 101. Aaron is also a four time Deadly Award nominee for Male Actor of the Year.

Aaron is currently co-producing a 3 x 1hr series on the history of the Torres Strait Islands, Blue Water Empire. He also trains young Torres Strait Islanders in filmmaking, as part of Screen Australia’s Indigenous Producers Initiative.

Old Dog

Ursula Yovich grew up in the Northern Territory. She has been listed in the Top 21 most iconic Women of the Australian Stage, Page & Screen by The Age and is a five time Helpmann Award nominee. One of Australia's most celebrated performers, she has amazed audiences all over the world, appearing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House.

Ursula’s recent theatre credits include Power Plays, The Golden Age, Love and Information, The Secret River and Bloodland for Sydney Theatre Company, Mother Courage at The Queensland Theatre Company, The Magic Hour for Deckchair Theatre Company, The Barefoot Divas for Sydney Festival and North American Tour and Waltzing the Wilarra for Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company.

On film Ursula has featured in Ivan Sen’s Goldstone, Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne, Warwick Thornton’s The Darkside and Around the Block for Sarah Spillane. Other screen credits include The Code, Devil’s Dust, Redfern Now Series 1 & 2, The Gods of Wheat Street, Murandak "Songs of Freedom" documentary, $9.99, Arcadia, My Bed Your Bed, Blacktrax, Message Stick, Blue Heelers and Songlines.

Levi

Actress Shari Sebbens dreamt of being an astronaut before seeing Deborah Mailman perform on the big screen in Radiance. It was then, as a teenager, Sebbens settled on a career in film and television.

After growing up as a proud Aboriginal woman in Darwin, she moved to Perth to attend WAAPA (the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), followed by another three years at NIDA.

Shari’s breakout role came in the hit feature film The Sapphires, where she starred alongside Jessica Mauboy, Deborah Mailman and Miranda Tapsell. She followed this up with major roles in the ABC series The Gods of Wheat Street and 8MMM Aboriginal Radio, and groundbreaking new series Black Comedy and Soul Mates.

Shari won a Logie for Best New Talent for her role in popular television series Redfern Now.

Her numerous theatre credits include Radiance for Belvoir St. and Battle of Waterloo for the Sydney Theatre Company. Shari will soon be seen in two new productions for the STC - The Bleeding Tree and Black Is the New White.

Sissy
B Boy

Originally from Perth, Renee is an established screen and stage actor and television presenter. She was the lead presenter on the television series Food Investigators, and a co-presenter on Destination Flavour, both for SBS.

Renee held a regular role on gritty crime drama East West 101 and a recurring role on ABC’s courtroom drama Crownies. Other television credits include Packed to the Rafters and All Saints. Recently Renee has appeared in all three seasons of the highly successful ABC comedy series Please Like Me, as well as mini-series Deep Water and The Secret Daughter, and drama series Wonderland.

Renee’s film credits include The Salt Maiden, Dead Moon Circus, The Last One, Ad Nauseum, The Tunnel, First Date, The Suitor, Triple Happiness and Fallen.

On stage, Renee played the lead in the Bakehouse Theatre/Stage Directions production of His Mother’s Voice at ATYP. She also starred in their production of Coup D’Etat, and in the one-woman show It’s Ok to Ask.

Miss Chen

Mark received an AACTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and won Best Supporting Actor at the Film Critics' Circle of Australia awards for his standout role in the feature film Last Cab to Darwin.

His many screen credits include the features Pawno, Around the Block and Beneath Hill 60 and the television series Old School, The Gods of Wheat Street, Modern Family, Hard Rock Medical (for Canada’s TV Ontario,) Please Like Me, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Blue Heelers, Dirt Game and The Circuit. He was recently seen on US screens in Hunters for the Syfy Network.

Mark has a certificate in Aboriginal Theatre from WAAPA and a Bachelor in Indigenous Studies. His theatre credits include Jandamarra, directed by Phil Thompson and Wulamanayuwi and Seven Pamanuas, directed by Noel Jordan for the Darwin Festival.

In 2007 Mark won the Yvonne Cohen Award from the VCA Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and in 2008 he took out a grant from ScreenWest for his short film Layoordoo, which screened at Toronto’s ImagiNATIVE Film Festival.

Mick

Katie Beckett is a writer and actor. Recent stage credits include critically acclaimed Which Way Home (writer/performer), and Cornaderrk, both for Ilbijerri Theatre Company. She performed in Nakkiah Lui’s Kill the Messenger at Belvoir and in Lighten Up at Griffen Theatre. Previous stage credits include Onwards and Upwards, This Fella, My Memory, Impossible Plays, Pull My Strings and I Will Play for You, Wrong Skin and To Soothe the Dying Pillow.

Katie’s television credits include Redfern Now, Black Comedy and HBO’s The Leftovers. Her film credits include Talkers, The Marshes, Oakie’s Adventure, One More Time, Drover’s Boy and Blackground.

Katie has been awarded the Ian Bowie Memorial Award and was shortlisted for the Yvonne Cohen Award for her solo work-in-progress, Coloured Diggers. She recently won the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwrights Award at Belvoir St Theatre.

George
Jacko

Kylie was born in Perth and raised in the wheat-belt town of Pingelly. She has performed in numerous theatre, television and film roles, and is well known as the main presenter on the NITV children’s series Waabiny Time.

Kylie’s theatre credits include playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for The Australian Shakespeare Company, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Shakespeare WA, Kay in the Company B stage version of The Sapphires, and multiple roles over an eleven year period with Perth-based Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company.

Her screen credits include Sa Black Thing for SBS, NITV’s Marngrook Footy Show, and feature film Stone Bros.

Ally

Miah is an Indigenous Australian actor and singer of Gadigal and Bundjalung heritage. Her father (deceased) was a Gadigal man and her mother is an Anglo Saxon Australian.

Miah has acted from a young age, appearing in commercials, music clips, television series and feature film. She played Young Julie in the popular and critically successful feature The Sapphires, and recorded two acapella songs for the soundtrack of the film. She also appeared in Warwick Thornton’s The Dark Side.

She has had significant roles in a number of ground breaking and popular Australian television series, including Athena in the ABC series The Gods of Wheat Street, Mattie in Redfern Now, and Billie in The Moody’s for ABC.

Monti

Little J is five, nearly six and has just started school. He’s in the ‘transition to school program’ (which has more emphasis on traditional kindergartenactivities – learning through creative play - than the following school years.) He’s curious and fascinated by the natural world around him.

He loves learning and most days he can’t wait to get to school. He’s a proud young Indigenous boy who respects his elders and his heritage.

Little J soaks up information like a sponge. He loves the outdoors and could happily spend his whole life exploring and day-dreaming about the worlds that lie just outside his Nanna’s backyard.

Little J is enthusiastic, creative, imaginative and good with his hands. He enjoys building and inventing things. He loves the stories his Nanna tells about their people and their connection with the land. When he is asked questions Little J answers honestly and to the best of his knowledge. At school, Little J likes ‘show and tell’, hanging out with his friend Levi, and playing basketball. He loves his teacher Ms Chen and impressing her with all the things he has learned, and the things he has discovered and collected from the natural world.

Despite being easily distracted, once on a mission Little J never gives up. Nothing can stop him, except heights. He hates heights!

Little J is learning to care for others, to listen and to think before he acts.

Miranda Tapsell

Nanna has a strong sense of self and is very comfortable in both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds. She’s confident with mothering the kids or working, and would be equally at ease studying or travelling overeas. She’s smart but doesn’t deliver her knowledge from on high. She encourages learning but she’s happy for Little J and Big Cuz to learn by their own mistakes and only help them out when they really need it.

The kids think there’s a bit of magic about how much she knows but in reality she’s seen most things before, and she’s pretty smart. She’s a good tracker, knows all the plants and their uses, and knows where to find the best bush tucker. She also makes the best Spaghetti Bolognese and can fix just about anything mechanical.

Nanna works part time at the local council and has a life of her own but her grandchildren are everything to her. She is fiercely loyal to them but refuses to spoil them. She puts in time at the school and has a great relationship with the kids’ teacher Ms Chen.

Nanna is knowledgeable, generous, warm, and never takes a backward step, ever.

Ningali Lawford-Wolf

Big Cuz is Little J’s nine year old cousin. She’s happiest when she’s exploring the great outdoors and climbing trees. She’s determined, athletic, likes dancing, music,

basketball and reading chapter books.

She’s a planner, and looks for ways to solve problems.

She’s not comfortable being in the spotlight but sometimes her enthusiasm gets the better of her and she’ll be eager to share a discovery with the class. She likes being part of the team, and because of her age, she has developed more awareness of herself and others than Little J.

Even though she and Little J can fight like cat and dog, they are really very close. She likes to play tricks on Little J - but she can’t stand it when Little J plays tricks on her!

Big Cuz is learning to overcome her fear of standing out, with Nanna and close friend Sissy’s support.

Deborah Mailman

Little J and Big Cuz’s teacher, Ms Chen is about thirty years old. Her father was born in South East Asia and her mother’s family have been in Australia for generations. Ms Chen is enthusiastic, dedicated but not gushy, and engaged and perceptive with the kids. She may feign ignorance sometimes to draw the kids out, and indeed sometimes she isn’t familiar with what they are talking about.

Ms Chen encourages early childhood learning through a dynamic approach to the classroom and the children’s interests. She makes special displays and lessons based on their interests and is always open to the stories and objects they share as a springboard for learning. She understands the importance of Aboriginal culture to her community even if she may be ignorant of aspects of it. She is keen to learn and has chosen to be teaching at this school.

Ms Chen has a respect for elders born of her own family background so she finds it natural to defer to Nanna - she respects that Nanna will know a lot because of her age.

She’s a dedicated, best practice teacher and she is one of the reasons that all the kids love to come to school. Ms Chen is passionate, committed, caring and intelligent.

Renee Lim

Old Dog can be a bit of an old scoundrel but he’s an ‘adult’ presence whenever he and the kids go off exploring and like any good dog, he is loyal and protective towards the kids. He’d never let any harm befall them.

Old Dog’s comments and observations book-end each episode but his observations are from a canine rather than ‘human’ perspective. Nothing much seems to faze Old Dog, apart from his nemesis; a big old Goanna. Given his age and disposition, Old Dog’s fastest speed is a reluctant trot. He seeks out shadows on warm days and groans as he flops down. When he’s still, fleas always seem to plague him. Old Dog would like to come in to the classroom but he’s not allowed. So he resorts to looking in through the window or slumping down in the shade.

Old Dog seems to understand humans better than they understand themselves, but he still maintains a dog’s perspective on the world and he embodies the simple wisdom of all dogs.

Aaron Fa’Aoso

Levi is Little J’s best mate. He is up for any activity, anywhere, any time. Levi is a year older than Little J but is less confident and is prone to stage fright. He is a sciencey ‘brainiac’ but can leap to incorrect conclusions after some spur of the moment theorising - inspired by his hero - his (unseen) grandpa.

Levi is generous, enthusiastic, and always there to follow through on Little J’s wild schemes.

Ursula Yovich

Jacko is a seven year old boy who gets about in a wheelchair. We get the sense he’s been in a wheelchair from a young age. He’s pretty comfortable with it and he’s realistic about what he can and can’t do. He has a strong sense of self and thinks you don’t have to be like everyone else to be cool. He plays basketball and with a bit of encouragement is even up for doing circus tricks with his wheelchair.

Katie Beckett

Monti, five, is usually quite quiet but can be excitable on certain occasions. He thinks a lot but he’s a few months younger than Little J and as the youngest in the class he sometimes gets a bit overwhelmed by his emotions.

Miah Madden

Mick is a Search and Rescue worker and coach of the school sport teams.

He is fit and strong but quite a shy and reserved individual. He’s very family and community minded and puts in a lot of effort at the school. Mick is the father of Little J’s school friend Ally who is five. Mick and Nanna are friends.

Mark Coles Smith

B Boy is Little J’s four year old neighbour. As he’s younger he doesn’t have to go to “big school”. However, he occasionally turns up and takes part in Little J’s lessons. Everyone is aware that B Boy is under no obligation to be there but Ms Chen and all the other kids are happy to have him there.

Although we catch glimpses of his house next door, we never properly see where B Boy lives or meet his family or carers. He regularly turns up at Nanna’s looking for a feed and some companionship.

He has a knack of materializing whenever food is mentioned. Although almost mono-syllabic B Boy has a knack for saying the one thing that is totally relevant.

He soaks up love, care and food.

Shari Sebbens

Sissy is ten years old and a bit of an extrovert. Having attained ‘double figures’, she naturally assumes command of

Big Cuz and the little kids. But she’s still happy to do ‘kids’ stuff’ for fun.

Sissy and Big Cuz are mostly friends and occasionally rivals but despite their ups and downs they admire each other a lot.

Shari Sebbens

A five year old girl in Little J’s class, Ally is Mick’s daughter. She’s very open and direct. Ally adores her father and loves it when he volunteers to do things at the school. She’s always on the go - climbing, running and jumping. She likes playing with Little J.

Kylie Farmer

George is eleven, laconic and very laid back. As he is getting older and technically in an ‘avoidance relationship’ with Ms Chen, he doesn’t make direct eye contact with her or speak to her directly. Ms Chen understands this is polite behaviour on George’s part and they both find ways to manage in the classroom.

Katie Beckett