Lyn Collingwood

Early career

While teaching, she conducted school plays, which lead to her performing in an Australian musical, upon which the director encouraged her to hire a talent agent, which lead to acting work in television commercials.

Collingwood appeared in a film short in the early 1960s, before appearing in a few TV roles from the late 1970s. One of her early roles was a guesting part in popular local soap opera Number 96.

Home and Away

She became most known however, when she was cast in serial Home and Away as recurring gossip comic character Colleen Smart (later Stewart) in 1988 to 1989. In 1997 she returned for a guest appearance, before returning again in 1999, this time as a regular character, remaining a permanent member of the cast for the next 14 years until leaving in May 2012, to concentrate on writing and directing. She did however make a return to the series in November 2012, before departing again in 2013. She has since stated that she has no intention of returning to Home and Away, feeling she is now too old to do so.

Television and film roles

Collingwood has had guest roles in numerous other TV serials including A Country Practice, Rafferty's Rules, E Street, G.P. Spellbinder, Murder Call and All Saints. Other small-screen credits include 2015 online sitcom A Shared House and an episode of Remember My Name, playing the role of Grandma Doris.

Collingwood's film credits include Palm Beach (1979), alongside Bryan Brown, ...Maybe This Time (1980), opposite Bill Hunter and Judy Morris, TV movie Chase Through the Night (1983), alongside Nicole Kidman and John Jarratt and A Test of Love (1984), opposite Angela Punch McGregor. Further credits include 1985 family TV film Archer’s Adventure, once again with Nicole Kidman, 1986 dystopian Ozploitation film Dead End Drive-In, and later, a small role in 2009 film The Makeover, opposite her former Home and Away cast mate Martin Dingle-Wall. In 2013, she appeared in short film Worm.

Theatre

Collingwood has also performed in theatre production's, joining Sydney's New Theatre in 1980. In 2009, she founded 'Players in the Pub', a company presenting play readings, in which she both acts and directs. She more recently appeared in a production of Marat/Sade at New Theatre in 2016.

Publications and other works

Collingwood has also worked in research and was an editor of The Australian Encyclopaedia, as well as a sole updater of the 21st Century Junior World Encyclopedia and the 30-volume Everyman's New Age Encyclopedia. She was also a project developer on the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Australia. Additionally, she worked as a book editor, primarily for publisher Hale & Iremonger, compiling their annual An Australian Woman's Diary.

Collingwood is also a historian and writer and member of the Glebe Society. In 2017, she launched a website detailing the history of Sydney's New Theatre.

In 2025, Collingwood wrote a book about the history of Dover Heights, the Sydney suburb where she grew up, titled Dover Heights: Rocks and Sand They Couldn't Sell.

Film

Television

As actor

As director