Leah Purcell

Leah Purcell is an Australian actress, playwright, director, and novelist who became involved with community theater in Brisbane before moving to Sydney in 1996 to work as a television presenter. Her first film role came in 1999 in Somewhere in the Darkness, and she went on to appear in Lantana (2001), Somersault (2004), The Proposition (2005), and Jindabyne (2006). On television she appeared in Police Rescue, Fallen Angels, Redfern Now, Janet King, and Wentworth, playing Rita Connors. Her play The Drover's Wife, which she wrote and starred in, won multiple awards, and she later turned it into a bestselling novel and the film The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021), her directorial debut, also writing, producing, and starring. Her honors include a Helpmann Award, two AACTA Awards, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize, and appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021.