Alice Ansara

Alice Ansara (born 1982) is an Australian actress working in film, television, and theatre, and as a radio presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Early life and education

Alice Ansara was born in 1982, the daughter of documentary filmmaker Martha Ansara, who arrived in Australia from the US in 1969, and a father who was already married with another family. She has two half-siblings, each born ten years apart.

She trained in acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Career

Ansara's first significant role was as young Cathy Ann in the award-winning Australian telemovie Breaking Through. She continued to work professionally across film and television into her adolescence.

Before finishing high school, Ansara landed the lead role of Lucia in the 2001 Australian film La Spagnola, which debuted at the Sydney Film Festival and garnered her Best Actress nominations at the 2001 Australian Film Institute Awards (now AACTA Awards) and the 2002 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards.

After graduating from WAAPA, Ansara starred in the film Rosebery 7470 for which she won a Best Actress Award at the 2006 Melbourne Underground Film Festival.^{[citation needed]} She also began working in theatre, including with leading Australian companies: Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Monkey Baa Theatre. and Bell Shakespeare. In 2009 Ansara was chosen by artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton as one of nine actors in the Sydney Theatre Company's acting ensemble known as "The Residents".

Ansara was part of the core cast of the TV comedy series Bogan Pride, playing Rebel Wilson's best friend Nigella. She has played various characters, including Lamees, in the first two seasons of Nazeem Hussain's television sketch comedy Legally Brown.^{[citation needed]}

She has been a member of Actors Equity since 1989 and has served on the Management Committee of the Actors Benevolent Fund.

Ansara has directed two short documentaries in Auslan for The Deaf Society of NSW, including Jacobs Story, commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission. She has also served as a member of the society's Centenary History sub-committee in the creation of the website Deaf in New South Wales: a Community History.

In 2013 she received a Mike Walsh Fellowship to study deaf theatre practices in Scandinavia.

Ansara is a member of the Film & Broadcast Industries Oral History Group associated with Australia's National Film and Sound Archive, for whom she records oral histories of Australian actors.

As a radio presenter and podcaster Alice moved from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to host the Saturday breakfast program for ABC South East NSW.

Personal life

Ansara has two daughters.

Filmography

Theatre

Radio

References