Nakkiah Lui

Nakkiah Lui
Born1991 (age 32–33)
Sydney, New South Wales
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Actor, writer, comedian
Notable workBlack Comedy, Kill The Messenger, Black Is The New White

Nakkiah Lui is an Australian actor, writer and comedian. She is a young leader in the Aboriginal Australian community.[1][2]

Career

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Lui is co-writer and star of Black Comedy,[3][4] 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)[5] and Power Plays (2016).[6]

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,[7] 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.[8][9] 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).[10]

Lui's play Black is the new White, was staged in 2017 at the Sydney Theatre Company.[11] The play was extended to a second season in 2018.[12] 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.[13] This production was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Australia Council production grant in 2014.[14]

Awards

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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.[15][16]

In 2014, Lui was awarded the Malcolm Robertson Prize and a Green Room Award for Best Independent Production.[15]

In 2015 she was joint winner of the NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, for Kill the Messenger.[17]

Lui received the Nick Enright Prize for playwriting in the 2018 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for Black is the New White.[18] She won the 2021 Russell Prize for humour writing for the same work.[19]

Personal life

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Lui is a Gamilaroi/Torres Strait Islander woman and lives in Sydney.[20]

Works

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Plays

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  • I Should Have Told You Before We Made Love (That I’m Black) (2012)
  • This Heaven (2013)
  • Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owners of Death (2013)
  • Kill the Messenger (2015)
  • Power Plays (2016)
  • Black is the New White (2017)
  • How to Rule the World (2019)[21]
  • My Dreaming, Our Awakening (first radio play on ABC's AWAYE program)[22]

TV shows

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Films

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  • From Drag King to Law Queen[22]
  • BabyGirl[22]

References

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  1. ^ Spring, Alexandra (26 January 2015). "Nakkiah Lui: I don't like the word leader, especially when used about me". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  2. ^ Lui, Nakkiah (9 March 2016). "As an Aboriginal teen I thought about killing myself every day". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Black Comedy: How Indigenous humour is driving social change". abc.net.au. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. ^ "They're a funny mob". theaustralian.com.au. 29 April 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Kill the Messenger review (Belvoir, Sydney) - Daily Review: Film, stage and music reviews, interviews and more". dailyreview.com.au. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  6. ^ Blake, Elissa (20 September 2016). "Playwright Nakkiah Lui puts Q&A under the spotlight in STC's Power Plays". smh.com.au. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Indigenous actress Nakkiah Lui thought she was to blame for the domestic violence she suffered". mamamia.com.au. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  8. ^ "Brisbane Writers Festival". Uplit. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  9. ^ "Brisbane Writers Festival 2017". Concrete Playground. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  10. ^ "BuzzFeed launches new podcast, 'Pretty for an Aboriginal'". Mumbrella. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps". www.theaustralian.com.au. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Playwright Nakkiah Lui Is Dreaming Of A White (And Black) Christmas". theMusic. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  13. ^ "Sydney Theatre Company unveils its 2018 season - Limelight". Limelight. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  14. ^ Puvanenthiran, Bhakthi (28 November 2014). "'Bogan Aboriginal' playwright Nakkiah Lui pushes theatrical boundaries". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  15. ^ a b Cerabona, Ron (22 March 2018). "Black is the New White by Nakkiah Lui at the Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Fellowship and Residencies". Belvoir St Theatre. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  17. ^ "2016 Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights". Theatre Network NSW. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  18. ^ Morris, Linda (30 April 2018). "Stories of ancestral memory storm NSW Premier's Literary Awards". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  19. ^ "Lui wins Russell Prize for Humour Writing, Bunting wins inaugural writing for young people award". Books+Publishing. 18 June 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  20. ^ Pitt, Helen (20 July 2018). "Indigenous playwright Nakkiah Lui could be Australia's next David Williamson". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  21. ^ Fitzsimmons, Caitlin (3 March 2019). "How Nakkiah Lui wants to change the world". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  22. ^ a b c "Nakkiah Lui". Currency Press. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
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