Alice Ansara


Alice Ansara is an Australian actress working in film, television and theatre and as a radio presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Background

Ansara is the daughter of documentary filmmaker, Martha Ansara and Master Builder Bill Ethell. Ansara began working as an actor as a child and also traveled in Australia whilst her mother made films. In her teens, she spent time in Colombia, South America, becoming fluent in Spanish. Ansara also signs Auslan. She attended the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney and later trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
She is the mother of two children, Mavis and Esther.

Career

Ansara's first significant role was as young Cathy Ann in the award-winning Australian telemovie Breaking Through. She continued to work professionally across film and television into her adolescence. Before finishing high school, Ansara landed the lead role of Lucia in the 2001 Australian movie La Spagnola, which debuted at the Sydney Film Festival and garnered her Best Actress nominations at the 2001 Australian Film Institute Awards and the 2002 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards.
After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Ansara starred in Rosebery 7470 for which she won a Best Actress Award at the 2006 Melbourne Underground Film Festival. She also began working in theatre, including with leading Australian companies: Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Monkey Baa Theatre and Bell Shakespeare. In 2009 Ansara was chosen by Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton as one of nine actors in the Sydney Theatre Company's acting ensemble known as "The Residents".
Ansara was part of the core cast of the TV comedy series Bogan Pride, playing Rebel Wilson's best friend Nigella. She has played various characters, including Lamees, in the first two seasons of Nazeem Hussain's television sketch comedy Legally Brown.
She has been a member of Actors Equity since 1989 and has served on the Management Committee of the Actors Benevolent Fund.
Ansara has directed two short documentaries in Auslan for The Deaf Society of NSW, including Jacobs Story, commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission. She has also served as a member of the Society's Centenary History sub-committee in the creation of the website Deaf in New South Wales: a Community History. In 2013 she received a Mike Walsh Fellowship to study deaf theatre practices in Scandinavia.
Ansara is a member of the Film & Broadcast Industries Oral History Group associated with Australia's National Film and Sound Archive for which she records oral histories of Australian actors.
As a radio presenter and podcaster Alice moved from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to host the Saturday breakfast program for ABC South East NSW.

Theatre

YearTitleRoleCompany
2002Three SistersOlgaWAAPA
2002A Midsummer Night's DreamTitaniaWAAPA
2003PericlesGowerWAAPA
2003The Innocent MistressMrs FlywifeWAAPA
2005Pearlie in the ParkMrs PossumMonkey Baa
2006The Merchant of VeniceJessicaBell Shakespeare
2008Arabian NightsFatimaGriffin Stablemates
2009The Mysteries: GenesisLucifer / AbelSydney Theatre Company
2009The SeagullThe SeagullScrew Theatre Company
2010LeviathanCaroline ChisolmSydney Theatre Company
2010Vs MacbethLennoxSydney Theatre Company
2010The OresteiaChorusSydney Theatre Company
2010The Comedy of ErrorsAdrianaSydney Theatre Company
2011One for the Ugly GirlsClaire505 Theatre
2012Look the Other WayEnsembleSydney Theatre Company / BYDS
2013The Other WayMaraSydney Theatre Company / BYDS
2014Jump for JordanSophiaGriffin Theatre Company
2015I Call My BrothersAhlem / TyraMelbourne Theatre Company
2015The Naked SelfGuideAuspicious Arts Projects
2018ContestCDarebin Arts
2022The Sirens ReturnPearlMerrigong Theatre

Radio

YearTitleRoleNotes
2015Going and GoingLailaABC Radio National