Australian actor, writer and comedian
Nakkiah Lui is an Australian actor, writer and comedian. She is a young leader in the Aboriginal Australian community.
Career.
Lui is co-writer and star of "Black Comedy", a sketch comedy television program on the ABC.
From 2012 to 2014 she was playwright-in-residence for Sydney's Belvoir Theatre and in 2013 she was the artist-in-residence for the Griffin Theatre. Her work includes: "This Heaven" (2013), "I Should Have Told You Before We Made Love (That I’m Black)" (2012), "Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death" (2013), "Kill the Messenger" (2015) and "Power Plays" (2016).
Lui is a columnist for "Australian Women's Weekly" and has also hosted Radio National's "Awaye" and "NAIDOC Evenings" for ABC Local Radio. She has appeared on "Q+A", "The Drum" and "Screen Time" on ABC.
In 2017, Lui was on the program to appear in four events at the 2017 Brisbane Writers Festival in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The same year, Lui wrote and starred in "Kiki and Kitty" (2017) a comedy series on ABC iview and ABC Comedy.
Teaming up with Indigenous Australian actress Miranda Tapsell, Lui and Tapsell host the Buzzfeed podcast "Pretty for an Aboriginal" (2017).
Lui's play "Black is the new White," was staged in 2017 at the Sydney Theatre Company. The play was extended to a second season in 2018. "Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death" is Lui's second play in the 2018 season at the Sydney Theatre Company and in co-production with Malthouse Theatre. The play contains illustrations by Barkindjii, Birri-Gubba artist Emily Johnson, visual animation by Oh Yeah Wow and directed by Declan Greene. This production was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Australia Council production grant in 2014.
Awards.
In 2012, Lui was the first recipient of the Dreaming Award by The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Arts Board of the Australia Council and was the inaugural recipient of the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright Award.
In 2014, Lui was awarded the Malcolm Robertson Prize and a Green Room Award for Best Independent Production.
In 2015 she was joint winner of the NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, for "Kill the Messenger".
Lui received the Nick Enright Prize for playwriting in the 2018 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for "Black is the New White". She won the 2021 Russell Prize for humour writing for the same work.
Personal life.
Lui is a Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander woman and lives in Sydney.
References.
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