Kate Mulvany

Kate Maree Mulvany OAM (born 1977) is an Australian actress, playwright and screenwriter. She works in theatre, television and film, with roles in Hunters (2020–2023), The Great Gatsby (2013), Griff the Invisible (2010) and The Final Winter (2007). She has played lead roles with Australian theatre companies as well as appearing on television and in film.

She has won several awards, including the Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award for The Seed in 2004 and the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play for her role in Richard 3 in 2017.

Early life and education

Kate Maree Mulvany was born in 1977 and grew up in Geraldton, Western Australia. Her father, Danny, had migrated to Australia as a "ten-pound Pom" from Nottingham in England. He was called up to fight in the Vietnam War when he was 22, despite not being an Australian citizen at that time, and developed PTSD from his experiences there. Her mother, Glenys, is a schoolteacher. She has a sister, Tegan, who is seven years younger than her.

Mulvany was diagnosed with a Wilms's tumor (renal cancer) at age two and spent much of her childhood in hospital. Her cancer may be linked to her father's exposure to Agent Orange (which was contaminated with dioxin) during his service in the Vietnam War, although this has not been proven. After having to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy and a radical nephrectomy, she was declared in remission. However, the treatment and cancer had affected her body as she grew, and caused infertility.

In 1994 she moved to Perth for university, accompanied by her family. She earned a double major degree in script writing and theatre, and was tutored by Elizabeth Jolley. In 1997, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Curtin University, and moved to Sydney in 1998.

Career

Mulvany has played lead roles with Australian theatre companies as well as appearing on television and in film.

For Bell Shakespeare she played Cassius, Lady Macbeth, and was lauded for her performance as Richard III in which she revealed her real-life spinal disability. Her adaptation of Craig Silvey's novel Jasper Jones has been performed in Perth by Barking Gecko Theatre Company, in Sydney by Belvoir St Theatre, and in Melbourne by the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2015 it was shortlisted for the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

In 2018, Mulvany adapted Ruth Park's The Harp in the South trilogy as a two-part play for Sydney Theatre Company. In 2019, she followed this with an adaptation of the Schiller play Mary Stuart - the first to be undertaken by a woman - again for Sydney Theatre Company. One review said, "Mulvany’s bold adaptation recentres the queens, shearing away nearly every male soliloquy and interaction held exclusively between men, of which there are an abundance in Schiller’s text", while others called it "dazzlingly different", and a "feminist" reimagining of a classic.

In April 2019, Deadline announced that Mulvany had been cast as a series regular in Amazon Prime Video's new 10-episode Nazi-hunting series Hunters, created by David Weil and produced by Jordan Peele. She played one of the Hunters, Sister Harriet.

In August 2023 Mulvany narrated the three-part ABC Television series Our Vietnam War.

Other activities

Mulvany is an ambassador for MiVAC (Mines, Victims and Clearance), a landmine advocacy and support group.

Personal life

Mulvany was partner to actor Mark Priestley, who died by suicide when she was 30 years old.

In 2015 she wed fellow actor Hamish Michael in New York.

Recognition and awards

General

• 2017: Honorary doctorate from Curtin University for her services to the arts in Australia
• 2017: Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award
• 2020: Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2020 Australia Day Honours, for service to the performing arts
• 2018: Named patron of the Hayman Theatre at Curtin, along with its theatre company and the Curtin Theatre Arts Program for a term of three years
• 2020: Mona Brand Award, worth $35,000, "presented to a woman who has a body of outstanding work which displays broad array and which has been widely performed or screened to critical acclaim"

As actor

As writer

Filmography

Film

Television

Writing

External links

• at IMDb
• at Rotten Tomatoes