Tobsha Learner is a British/Australian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Her first collection of short stories, Quiver, sold 150,000 copies worldwide. [1] She has sold over 790 thousand books and is in translation in a number of countries. Her publishers have included Tor US, LittleBrown UK and HarperCollins AU. She is married with three stepsons, and while currently residing in New York has until recently divided her time between London and California. [2] [3]
Learner was born in Cambridge, England and raised in London. She is the daughter of Anglo-Australian parents: Arnold Learner, an English-born mathematician, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in London at forty and his first wife Eva Learner née Rechts, social worker, feminist and humanist who was born in Palestine then migrated to Australia aged four. Learner's parents moved to England in the late 1950s. She has two siblings Adam and Ruth Learner.[ citation needed ]
Learner went to Paddington Comprehensive then onto Hornsey College of Art for a Foundation year. During that year she also trained as a marble carver in Carrara, Italy, [4] apprenticed to the Australian sculptor Joel Ellenberg. After which she migrated at eighteen to Melbourne, Australia. She then went to the Victorian College of the Arts to complete a BA in sculpture. But in her second year, began to return to her first love of theatre. Firstly through performance art then playwriting after becoming one of the founders of avant-garde theatre company 'Straight-face Productions.'[ citation needed ]
In 1989 Learner was one of the founding sponsors of the National Foundation for Australian Women. [5] Her "Literary papers, 1983-1992", are held by the Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales. [6]
After completing her degree she moved to Sydney, where she did a playwright's course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art then on to AFTRS, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School for a screenwriting course. Her mentors included writer/teacher Paul Thompson and director Jimmy Sherman.[ citation needed ]
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress and record producer. She is one of Australia's highest-selling artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwide. Arena is multilingual, singing and recording in English, Italian, French and Spanish.
Dawn Fraser is an Australian freestyle champion swimmer and former politician. She is one of only four swimmers to have won the same Olympic individual event three times – in her case the women's 100-metre freestyle.
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While she wrote throughout her life, her other major literary success, All That Swagger, was not published until 1936.
Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki, often referred to as "Dr Karl", is an Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio and television.
Laurie William Daley AM, also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a centre and five-eighth in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lisbeth Joanne "Libbi" Gorr is an Australian broadcaster working in both TV and radio. Gorr is also an author, voice artist, writer and performer. She first came to prominence with the satirical television character that she created called "Elle McFeast".
Debra Oswald is an Australian writer for film, television, stage, radio and children's fiction. In 2008 her Stories in the Dark won Best Play in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She created and was head writer of the Channel 10 drama series Offspring, now on Netflix, for which she won the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Award and the 2014 AACTA Award for best TV screenplay. Her novel Useful was released in 2015, followed by her novel The Whole Bright Year in 2018, both published by Penguin Random House.
Belinda Lynette Green is an Australian model and beauty queen who won the Miss World 1972 contest at the age of 20. She became the second Australian to win the title; the first, Penelope Plummer, was crowned Miss World in 1968. The pageant was held in London, at the Royal Albert Hall. Green's triumph came in a year that saw Australia win the Miss Universe crown, the Miss Asia Pacific title, and placed first runner-up in the Miss International.
Kerryn Lyndel Phelps is an Australian medical practitioner, public health and civil rights advocate, medical educator and politician.
Caroline Overington is an Australian journalist and author. Overington has written 13 books. She has twice won the Walkley Award for investigative journalism, as well as winning the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for journalism (2007), the Blake Dawson Waldron Prize (2008) and the Davitt Award for Crime Writing (2015).
Gladys Berejiklian is an Australian former politician who served as the 45th Premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021. She assumed office on 23 January 2017 after the resignation of Mike Baird. She previously served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2003 to 2021, representing the seat of Willoughby.
Elizabeth Helen "Libby" Hathorn is an Australian writer for children, and a poet who works with schools, institutions and communities. She has received many awards for her books, some of which have been translated into several languages. In 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her contribution to children's theatre. In 2014 she was awarded the Alice Award for her contribution to Australian literature.
Tracey Leigh Spicer is an Australian newsreader, Walkley Award winning journalist and advocate. She is known for her association with Network Ten as a newsreader in the 1990s and 2000s when she co-hosted Ten Eyewitness News in Brisbane, Queensland. She later went on to work with Sky News Australia as a reporter and presenter from 2007 to 2015. In May 2017 Spicer released her autobiography, The Good Girl Stripped Bare. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia "For significant service to the broadcast media as a journalist and television presenter, and as an ambassador for social welfare and charitable groups".
Ellyse Alexandra Perry is an Australian sportswoman who has represented her country in cricket and association football. Having debuted for both the national cricket team and the national soccer team at the age of 16, she is the youngest Australian to play international cricket and the first to have appeared in both ICC and FIFA World Cups. Gradually becoming a single-sport professional athlete from 2014 onward, Perry's acclaimed cricket career has continued to flourish and she is now widely considered to be one of the greatest female players ever.
Betty Roland was an Australian writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics.
Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King) was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for 36 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.
Kate Mulvany is an Australian actress, playwright and screenwriter. She works in theatre, television and film, with roles in Hunters (2020), 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. In 2004 she won the Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award for The Seed. In 2017, she won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play for her role in Richard 3.
Corinne Louise Hall is an Australian cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter and occasional right-arm off break bowler for Tasmanian Tigers in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and Sydney Thunder in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL). She has also played for English county sides Berkshire and Devon, and the New Zealand team Canterbury Magicians.
Rosanna Alish Waterland is an Australian comedian, author, screenwriter, and actress. Waterland first rose to popularity in 2013 with her satirical recaps of the first season of The Bachelor Australia. Fellow author and ABC presenter Richard Glover called what she did "the best television writing since Clive James". Waterland has also published two best-selling books: The Anti-Cool Girl, Every Lie I've Ever Told.
Jessica Dettmann is an Australian author and performer.
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