Ursula Yovich is anAboriginal Australian actress and singer. She is known for numerous stage appearances, for co-writing and appearing in the rock musicalBarbara and the Camp Dogs (2017), and several film and TV appearances.

Yovich was born in 1977^[1] inDarwin, Northern Territory, Australia, also growing up there. Her father, Slobodan Jović, was a Bosnian Serb immigrant whoanglicised his name to Yovich. Her mother is an AboriginalBurarra woman from north-westArnhem Land near theBlyth River, with the closest community beingManingrida.^[2] Raised in Darwin with her Dad, both her parents spoke English as a second language.^[3]

Yovich started singing when she was young, and at the age 13, began formal music training when her father enrolled her in singing classes. She later joined one of the local youth theatre groups.^[3] She eventually left Darwin to study in Perth,^[4] graduating from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts in 1996,^[5] before eventually relocating to Sydney.^[4]

Yovich has appeared in more than 50 theatre and musical theatre productions, includingCapricornia,Mother Courage and her Children,The Sapphires,Natural Life,Nailed,The Sunshine Club,Jerry Springer the Opera,Nathaniel Storm, andThe Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom.^[6][7][8][9]

Yovich co-wrote the libretto and songs forrock musicalBarbara and the Camp Dogs withAlana Valentine, and appeared in the show alongsideElaine Crombie.^[10][11] She wrote and starred in her own one-woman cabaret,Magpie Blues and also wroteThe Man with the Iron Neck, which toured Australia from 2018 to 2019.^[12]

Yovich featured in Australia’s first Aboriginal opera,Pecan Summer. She toured both locally and internationally with the musicians of Black Arm Band inDirtsong. She has also performed in the all-girl group, Barefoot Divas.^[12]

Yovich's film credits include dramaJindabyne (2006),Baz Luhrmann epicAustralia (2008),Around the Block (2013), crime thrillerGoldstone (2016)^[13][14][15] and romantic comedyTop End Wedding (2019).^[12]

She has appeared in television series' includingRedfern Now, season 2 of the crime drama seriesMystery Road, and the comedy seriesPreppers.^[16] Other television credits includeWakefield,Wanted,The Code,The Gods of Wheat Street.^[12]Rake,The Moth Effect,The Twelve,Irreverent,How to Stay Married, Doctor Doctor,Faboriginal and Devil's Dust.^[15]

Yovich is a writer on theNITV animated children’s TV seriesLittle J & Big Cuz, in which she also voiced the characters of Nanna and Levi.^[12] Additionally, she was the subject of an episode of theSBS documentary seriesBlaktrax.^[16]

In 2019, while filming forMystery Road, Yovich announced that after 22 years, she was stepping away from the theatre, saying she couldn't pretend that she wanted to pursue theatre any longer.^[17] In 2024, she made a theatre comeback, appearing inThe Lewis Trilogy.^[18]

As of 2009^[update] Yovich was married to Stewart O'Connell, a lawyer, and the couple has one daughter.^[29]

^[39]

• Sketches EP (2004)
• Ursula Yovich Live (2010)^[39]
• Well-Behaved Women (2023, contributing vocalist)

• Ursula Yovich atIMDb
• "We are in Australia: Serbian Aboriginal woman". RTS Short documentary about Ursula Yovich authored by Dragan Caran, 16 October 2015

• Australian film actresses
• Australian musical theatre actresses
• Australian television actresses
• Australian people of Serbian descent
• Helpmann Award winners
• Indigenous Australian actresses
• Indigenous Australian musicians
• People from Darwin, Northern Territory
• Living people
• 1977 births
• 21st-century Australian actresses
• 21st-century Australian singers
• 21st-century Australian women singers

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