Alice Ansara is an Australian actress and dramaturg who works in film, television and theatre.
Background
editAnsara is the daughter of documentary filmmaker, Martha Ansara and Master Builder Bill Ethell. Ansara began working as an actor as a child and also traveled in Australia whilst her mother made films. In her teens, she spent time in Colombia, South America, becoming fluent in Spanish. Ansara also signs Auslan (Australian Sign Language). She attended the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney and later trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
She is the mother of two children, Mavis and Esther.
Career
editAnsara's first significant role was as young Cathy Ann in the award-winning Australian telemovie Breaking Through.[1] 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 movie La Spagnola,[2][3] which debuted at the Sydney Film Festival and garnered her Best Actress nominations at the 2001 Australian Film Institute Awards[4] (now AACTA Awards) and the 2002 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards.[5]
After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Ansara starred in Rosebery 7470[6][7] for which she won a Best Actress Award at the 2006 Melbourne Underground Film Festival.[8] 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".[9]
Ansara was part of the core cast of the TV comedy series Bogan Pride,[10] 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.
She has been a member of Actors Equity since 1989 and has served on the Management Committee of the Actors Benevolent Fund.[11]
Ansara has directed two short documentaries in Auslan for The Deaf Society of NSW, including Jacobs Story,[12] 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.[13] In 2013 she received a Mike Walsh Fellowship[14] 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.[15]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Gino | Girl | |
| 1997 | She’s Not Very Beautiful | Jane (lead) | Short film |
| 1997 | The One That Got Away | Maria (lead) | Short film |
| 2000 | La Spagnola | Lucia (lead) | Feature film Best Actress Nomination at AFI Awards, FCCC Awards |
| 2005 | Rosebery 7470 | Alison (lead) | Won Best Actress Award at MUFF Awards |
| 2006 | Meditations on a Name | Wattle (lead) | Short film |
| 2007 | Sexy, Single, Bilingual | Zoya (lead) | Short film |
| 2008 | The Ballad of Betty & Joe | Betty (lead) | Short film |
| 2008 | The Ladies Lounge | Layla (lead) | Short film Won Queer Perspective Award at Sydney Queer Film Festival |
| 2010 | Nude Study | Alison | |
| 2014 | Shock Room | Lana | Documentary film Won Best Feature Documentary at Antenna Documentary Film Festival |
| 2016 | Video Report | Susie (lead) | |
| 2017 | Deep Storage | Sylvia (lead) | Short film Won Audience Award for Best Short Film at Bentonville Film Festival |
| 2017 | Beyond the Bubble | Denise | Short film |
| 2018 | Judy and Punch | Alice | Feature film |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Breaking Through | Young Ann | |
| 1990 | Death Duties | Sophie | |
| 1997 | The Teenage Guide to Popularity | Amy | |
| 2007 | All Saints | Detective Grant | TV series |
| 2008 | Bogan Pride | Nigella | TV series |
| 2010 | My Place | Mrs Stockton | TV series |
| 2013–14 | Legally Brown | Lamees / various | TV series, season 1–2 |
| 2015 | Moonman | Mum | |
| 2017 | Newton's Law | Carla | TV series |
Theatre
edit| Year | Title | Role | Company |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Three Sisters | Olga | WAAPA |
| 2002 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Titania | WAAPA |
| 2003 | Pericles | Gower | WAAPA |
| 2003 | The Innocent Mistress | Mrs Flywife | WAAPA |
| 2005 | Pearlie in the Park | Mrs Possum | Monkey Baa |
| 2006 | The Merchant of Venice | Jessica | Bell Shakespeare |
| 2008 | Arabian Nights | Fatima | Griffin Stablemates |
| 2009 | The Mysteries: Genesis | Lucifer / Abel | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 2009 | The Seagull | The Seagull | Screw Theatre Company |
| 2010 | Leviathan | Caroline Chisolm | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 2010 | Vs Macbeth | Lennox | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 2010 | The Oresteia | Chorus | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 2010 | The Comedy of Errors | Adriana | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 2011 | One for the Ugly Girls | Claire | 505 Theatre |
| 2012 | Look the Other Way | Ensemble | Sydney Theatre Company / BYDS |
| 2013 | The Other Way | Mara | Sydney Theatre Company / BYDS |
| 2014 | Jump for Jordan | Sophia | Griffin Theatre Company |
| 2015 | I Call My Brothers | Ahlem / Tyra | Melbourne Theatre Company |
| 2015 | The Naked Self | Guide | Auspicious Arts Projects |
| 2018 | Contest | C | Darebin Arts |
Radio
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Going and Going | Laila | ABC Radio National |
References
edit- ^ "Breaking Through" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ Stratton, David (12 August 2001). "La Spagnola".
- ^ "Urban Cinefile LA SPAGNOLA". www.urbancinefile.com.au.
- ^ "AACTA – Past Winners – 2000–2010 – 2001". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- ^ "Urban Cinefile FCCA AWARDS 2002 - NOMINATIONS". www.urbancinefile.com.au. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ^ "Rosebery 7470" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "FilmBizarro.com - From extreme underground horror reviews to independent arthouse and beyond". www.filmbizarro.com.
- ^ "Melbourne Underground Film Festival (2006)". IMDb.
- ^ Schwartzkoff, Louise (13 June 2009). "New kids on block have an edgy agenda". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ^ "Bogan Pride: Meet the Cast". SBS Website. 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ^ "Actors Benevolent Fund of NSW - Home". www.actorsbenevolentfund.org.au.
- ^ "Twenty Years: Twenty Stories: Jacob's Story". Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ^ "Deaf in New South Wales: A Community History". Deaf in New South Wales: A Community History.
- ^ "Mike Walsh O.B.E. - Official Website". www.mikewalsh.com.au.
- ^ "NFSA - Error". colsearch.nfsa.gov.au.