Magda Szubanski | |
|---|---|
 Szubanski in 2013 | |
| Born | (1961-04-12)12 April 1961 (age 64) Liverpool, England |
| Education | Siena College |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Notable work | Esme Cordelia Hoggett inBabe (1995) andits 1998 sequel Voice of Miss Viola inHappy Feet (2006) andits 2011 sequel Voice of Mrs. Mutton in100% Wolf (2020) |
| Television | Fast Forward (1989–1992) Kath and Kim (2002–2007) |
Magdalene Mary Therese SzubanskiAO (/ʒəˈbænski/zhə-BAN-skee;[6] born 12 April 1961) is an Australian comedian, actor, author, andLGBT rights advocate.[7] She performed inFast Forward,Kath & Kim asSharon Strzelecki, and in the filmsBabe (1995) andBabe: Pig in the City (1998),Happy Feet (2006) andHappy Feet Two (2011). In 2003 and 2004 surveys, she polled as the most recognised and well-liked Australian television personality.[8][7]
Szubanski has spoken openly about her struggles with intergenerational trauma, anxiety and suicidal ideation in her teens.[9] She became an activist for LGBT rights and, in 2017, advocated forsame-sex marriage in Australia.[10] In 2015, Szubanski released her memoir,Reckoning.[11]
Szubanski was born on 12 April 1961, inLiverpool, England.[12] Her mother Margaret (née McCarthy) is Scottish-Irish and came from a poor family. Her father, Zbigniew Szubański, came from a well-offPolish family and was an assassin in a counter-intelligence branch of thePolish resistance movement in World War II.[13][9][14][15] She is a cousin of Polish actorMagdalena Zawadzka.
She attendedSiena College, Melbourne.[13] In 1976, as a Year 10 student, she captained a team on the television quiz showIt's Academic.[16] Szubanski studied fine arts and philosophy at theUniversity of Melbourne where she attained a Bachelor of Arts.[17][18]
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Szubanski was a writer and performer ofsketch comedy. In 1985, while performing in aUniversity of Melbourne revue ofToo Cool for Sandals, Szubanski,Michael Veitch,Tom Gleisner and others were talent-spotted byAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) producers, which led toThe D-Generation television sketch comedy show.[19]
Szubanski was one of the creators and performers of theFast Forward television sketch comedy for theSeven Network, in which she played various characters, including Pixie-Anne Wheatley, Chenille from the Institute de Beauté, Wee Mary MacGregor,Joan Kirner, Michelle Grogan. The character of Lynne Postlethwaite was first performed on the ABC'sThe D-Generation. It was originally written by John Allsop andAndrew Knight, but fromFast Forward on Szubanski co-wrote the sketches, and created and co-wrote her characters.
In 1995, she and friendsGina Riley andJane Turner wrote, performed and produced the first all-female Australian sketch comedy television program;Big Girl's Blouse. When Riley and Turner developed sketch-characters they had created into the sitcomKath & Kim, Szubanski joined them to playSharon Strzelecki, a character she had previously created.[20] That same year, Szubanski hosted the37th Australian Film Institute Awards.[21]
In 1999, Szubanski created, wrote, co-produced and played Margaret O'Halloran in theDogwoman series of TV films, a detective style show based on the idea an expert "dog-whisperer" who, by treating problem dogs, inadvertently stumbles upon and solves human crimes.
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In 2009, she appeared onWho Do You Think You Are? where she explored her father's Polish Resistance activities as well as the story of her shell-shocked Irish grandfather and her sculptor ancestor Luigi Isepponi who assisted in making thedeath mask for William Burke, half of the duo Burke and Hare, notorious grave robbers and serial killers.
From 3 September 2018, Szubanski recurred asJemima Davies-Smythe onNeighbours. Her character officiated the first same-sex wedding on Australian television.[22]
On 8 April 2019, she appeared as "Guest Announcer" onChris & Julia's Sunday Night Takeaway's season finale where she participated in a number of roles.
On 9 March 2021, Szubanski was announced as the host of theNine Network's revival ofThe Weakest Link. Initially due to premiere on 4 May 2021, it instead premiered on 25 May following a tight production schedule.[23][24][25]
Szubanski performed in the 1995 filmBabe as Esme Hoggett. She reprised her role in the 1998 sequel,Babe: Pig in the City. She then teamed up again with director/producer George Miller to voice the role of Miss Viola in the animated filmsHappy Feet andHappy Feet Two.
In 2007, she had a minor role as Mrs Lonsdale, the housemaid inThe Golden Compass toLyra Belacqua.
In 2007, Szubanski ventured into musical comedy, taking on the role of William Barfee in the Melbourne Theatre Company production of the hit Broadway musicalThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.Variety described her performance as "sensationally good".[26]Australian Stage said, "Magda Szubanski as the Eric Cartman-esque William Barfee steals the show."[27]
In 2008, she again participated in some gender-blind casting, taking on the role of pint-sized gangster Big Jule in a major stage production ofGuys and Dolls.
In 2010, she appeared in the first Indigenous musical filmBran Nue Dae as Roadhouse Betty alongside Geoffrey Rush,Ernie Dingo,Missy Higgins andDeborah Mailman. The film was directed by Rachel Perkins, daughter of the Aboriginal activistCharlie Perkins.
In 2012, she again teamed with Rush to appear in theStephen Sondheim musicalA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
In 2020, Szubanski was the painted subject ofWendy Sharpe'sArchibald Prize entry, a portrait painting competition held by theArt Gallery of New South Wales. In Sharpe's painting,Comedy and Tragedy, Szubanski is depicted asSharon Strzelecki, standing amongst flaming buildings during an air raid.[28]
The painting achieved finalist status in the competition; and in an interview withAGNSW, Sharpe commented:
'After an intense conversation with Magda in my Sydney studio, I decided to change my original concept for the portrait and painted her as a despairing version of her comic character/alter ego Sharon. Magda is haunted by her father's traumatic experiences in World War II in the Polish resistance, and by current world events.'[28]
In 2004, Szubanski advertised the airlineJetstar.[8] Szubanski became a spokesperson for the dieting companyJenny Craig in November 2008.[29] Szubanski joined Jenny Craig weighing 110 kg and had been diagnosed withsleep apnoea.[29] By July 2009, she had lost 36 kg to weigh 85 kg.[30] She later regained weight, then was dropped as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig. However, subsequent weight loss led to her being re-signed as their spokesperson. She was later again dropped from Jenny Craig. She was also featured in commercials for Telstra in 2014. In 2019, she appeared in an Uber Eats ad in her Sharon Strzelecki character with a "Kim", referencing fellowKath & Kim characterKim Craig, but who turns out to beKim Kardashian.
In 2015, Szubanski released a memoir,Reckoning, in large part about her father, Zbigniew Szubanski who was a World War 2 Polish Resistance assassin, and dealing with themes of intergenerational trauma, possible genetic inheritance of traumatic memory and Szubanski's struggles with her own sexuality. The book won the TBA[31] and $40,000 Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction[32] and "Book of the Year" and "Biography of the Year" at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Reviewer Peter Craven, inThe Australian, said it would "dazzle every kind of reader" and described it as "a riveting, overwhelmingly poignant autobiography by a woman of genius. It is a book about how someone might live with the idea of killing the thing they love. It is a story of love and death and redemption and a daughter's love for her father. It is an extraordinary hymn to the tragic heroism at the heart of ordinary life and the soaring moral scrutiny of womankind. Every library should have it, every school should teach it."[33] Richard Ferguson inThe Sydney Morning Herald wrote, "This is documentary writing of the highest order and Szubanski has given life to an incredible war story...Reckoning, this tale of war and suburbia, sexuality and comedy" and referred to Szubanski as an A-grade non-fiction writer.[34]
Actor and friendGeoffrey Rush launched her book and wrote inThe Guardian: "I was absorbed in preparing for King Lear when I read the book. The classical stature of that particular father-daughter relationship didn't go unnoticed. Magda grew up in the shadow of a difficult reckoning — the summation, the questioning, the Elizabethan sense of settling the bill with one's parents. As she phrases it: her father needed to forget— she needed to remember. The only way forward was back. Her book riffs a major life in a reflective minor key. I've got lost in Joyce's Dublin, Woolf's Bloomsbury, the Bronte Sisters' Yorkshire moors. Now I'm enthralled with Magda Szubanski's Croydon, Australia's own collective sub-conscious suburb, the architecture of which she deftly anoints as Bauhaus's "bastard child"...Reckoning is really a non-fiction novel – and its invitation into Magda's story is infectious."[35] The New South Wales Premier's Award judges describedReckoning as 'warm, clear, wise, funny and deeply intelligent. The amplitude of Szubanski's writing is particularly impressive. Her voice has a light surety, while constantly giving narrative and moral weight to the larger themes of grief, family, migration and finding one's place in the world'."[36]
Szubanski is the author of "Timmy the Ticked Off Pony", a series of children's books illustrated by Dean Rankine.
In 2019, Szubanski was appointed an officer in the general division of the Order of Australia (AO) "for distinguished service to the performing arts as an actor, comedian and writer, and as a campaigner for marriage equality."[37]
In 2025, she was inducted into theLogie Hall of Fame, for her contribution to comedy, literature and activism. She is the fifth female inductee to enter into the Logies Hall of Fame.[38][39]
Szubanski has been a vocal campaigner for LGBT rights and for same-sex marriage since coming out publicly in 2012.[40] She is patron of the LGBT group, Twenty/10.[41]
During the same-sexAustralian Marriage Law Postal Survey, Szubanski was interviewed on several TV shows advocating for a "Yes" result.[42] The co-chair ofAustralian Marriage Equality (Alex Greenwich) rated her efforts as "crucial" in the success of the "Yes" campaign.[43]
In 2020, Szubanski and Will "Egg Boy" Connolly raised $190,000 for bushfire affected communities and together with trauma experts co-founded "Regeneration", a creative arts project to provide mental-health support.[44]
In 2013, Szubanski became the Patron of "Twenty10".[45]
In the 1990s Szubanski didblackface for a television show which aired on theSeven Network. She has since acknowledged this was a mistake. “We didn’t know, and that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook”.[46]
In 2019, Szubanski was involved in a campaign targetingChristianpreacher andrugby league football playerIsrael Folau after he called on homosexuals to "repent of their sins and turn to God". Szubanski prominently launched an appeal to fund opposition to Folau. After Szubanski was criticised, Folau called for an end to online attacks on Szubanski.[47]
In 2020, the Commissioner for eSafety,Julie Inman Grant, toldSenate Estimates that Szubanski had been the target of "Volumetric...co-ordinated right-wing extremist attacks" after she appeared in aCOVID safety ad.[48]
In April 2021 Szubanski faced criticism and calls for her to hand back the award which had appointed her officer in theOrder of Australia (AO) after she criticised the appearance ofJenny Morrison, wife of the thenAustralian Prime Minister,Scott Morrison. Commenting on the Morrisons in a photograph of the Prime Minister signing a condolence book after the death ofPrince Philip, Szubanski compared the Prime Minister's wife's appearance to a character in a fictional religious extremist society of sex slaves from the seriesThe Handmaid's Tale.[49][50][51][52][4][53]
On 14 February 2012, Szubanskicame out in a statement supportingsame-sex marriage and stated that she "absolutely identifies as gay" in an interview on Australian TV current affairs programThe Project.[54][55] Szubanski has described herself as "culturally Catholic".[56]
In May 2025, Szubanski announced that she had been diagnosed withmantle cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer, and that it had progressed tostage 4.[57]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Babe | Esme Cordelia Hoggett | |
| 1998 | Babe: Pig in the City | ||
| 2002 | The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course | Brozzie Drewitt | |
| 2005 | Son of the Mask | Neighbour Betty | |
| 2006 | Happy Feet | Miss Viola | Voice |
| 2007 | Dr Plonk | Mrs. Plonk | |
| Goodnight, Vagina | Mrs. March | Short | |
| Little Deaths | Iris | ||
| The Golden Compass | Mrs. Lonsdale | ||
| 2010 | Bran Nue Dae | Roadhouse Betty | |
| Santa's Apprentice | Beatrice | Voice | |
| 2011 | Happy Feet Two | Miss Viola | |
| 2012 | Kath & Kimderella | Sharon Karen Strzelecki | |
| 2013 | Goddess | Cassandra Wolfe | |
| 2017 | Three Summers | Queenie | |
| 2018 | The BBQ | The Butcher | |
| 2019 | Ride Like a Girl | Sister Dominique | |
| 2020 | 100% Wolf | Mrs. Mutton | Voice |
| 2024 | Memoir of a Snail | Ruth |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–1987 | The D-Generation | Various characters | |
| 1988 | The D-Generation Goes Commercial | Various characters | |
| 1989–1992 | Fast Forward | Pixie-Anne Wheatley, Chenille,Joan Kirner, Mary McGregor, Maggie T & Satan's Brides | |
| 1992 | Bligh | Betsy Bligh | |
| 1993 | Full Frontal | Various characters | |
| The Making of Nothing | Judith Gates/Kim Borrodale | ||
| A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy | Mr Cardigan, Mr Trouser,Bill Kelty | ||
| 1994 | Big Girl's Blouse | Herself, Sharon Karen Strzelecki, Lynne Postlethwaite | [20] |
| 1995 | The Search for Christmas | Herself | |
| 1996 | The Genie from Down Under | Doris | |
| 1997 | Good Guys, Bad Guys | Bella Bouvier | |
| 1998 | Something Stupid | Various characters | |
| 1999–2001 | Farscape | Furlow | |
| 2000–2001 | Dogwoman | Margaret O'Halloran | |
| 2002–2007 | Kath & Kim | Sharon Karen Strzelecki, Lorraine Craig | |
| 2006 | Magda's Funny Bits | Mary McGregor, Chenille, Sharon Karen Strzelecki, Lynne Postlethwaite | |
| 2009 | The Spearman Experiment | Host | |
| 2010 | Who Do You Think You Are? | Herself | |
| 2014 | Rake | Helen | |
| Legit | Anne Jefferies | ||
| It's a Date | Mary-Angela | ||
| 2015 | Open Slather | Various characters | |
| Stop Laughing... This Is Serious | Herself | ||
| 2016 | Anh's Brush with Fame | Herself | Series 1 Episode 1[58] |
| Q&A | Herself | (19 September 2016)[59] | |
| 2017 | Q&A | Herself | 23 October |
| 2018 | Neighbours | Jemima Davies-Smythe | 11 episodes |
| 2019 | Chris & Julia's Sunday Night Takeaway | Herself: Guest Announcer | Season Finale: 14 April |
| 2019 | My Life Is Murder | Miranda Lee | Episode: "Old School"; Series 1 Episode 7 |
| 2021–2022 | Weakest Link (Australia) | Herself | [60] |
| 2022 | After the Verdict | Margie | |
| 2022 | God's Favorite Idiot | Bathroom God | |
| 2022 | Magda's Big National Health Check | Herself | Documentary[61] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Too Cool for Sandals | various | |
| 1993 | The Rise and Fall of Little Voice | Sadie | |
| 2005 | Grease: The Arena Spectacular (National Australia Tour) | Miss Lynch | |
| 2007 | The Madwoman of Chaillot | Countess Aurelia | |
| 2008 | Guys and Dolls | Big Jule | |
| 2012 | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Domina |
Acting
Writing
Other
Magda completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University, majoring in Philosophy and Fine Arts. After early training with the ABC-TV cult show D-Generation, Magda shot to fame in 1989 in response to...
