Rachael Maza
Rachael Zoa Maza, also credited as Rachael Maza Long, is an Indigenous Australian television and film actress, and stage director. She is known for her role in the 1998 film Radiance, and worked with Company B and Wesley Enoch in Sydney for many years. She was artistic director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2008 to 2025.
Early life and education
Rachael Zoa Maza is of Dutch, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Australian heritage, the daughter of Bob Maza, also an actor.She is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Career
Stage
Maza has numerous stage credits, since at least 1992. She has worked with Company B and Wesley Enoch for many years, with her performances at the Belvoir St Theatre including leading roles in Conversations with the Dead and The Dreamers. She again worked with Enoch in The Sapphires, staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Festival.She has worked as part of The Black Arm Band and as the director of Lou Bennett's play Show Us Your Tiddas!.
From 2008 to 2025, Maza was artistic director and co-CEO of Ilbijerri Theatre Company. In 2024, as a part of this role, she co-directed the musical Big names, No blankets about the formation of the Warumpi Band; her co-director is Anyupa Butcher the daughter of one of the band members Sammy Butcher.
Television and film
Maza's first outing on Australian television was in the ABC Television series Heartland in 1994. She and Lillian Crombie, who also appeared in the series, were fresh out of acting school at that time. The series was written by Aboriginal Australians ans starred many Aboriginal actors, as well as Cate Blanchett in her first screen outing.She worked as a TV presenter on ABC Television's weekly show focusing on Indigenous Australians, Message Stick. and SBS's ICAM in 1997–1998.
She has numerous credits as an actor in television series, including Wentworth, Winners and Losers, Halifax f.p., Stingers, SeaChange, Heartland, A Country Practice, and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
She acted in the films Cosi, Radiance, and Lilian's Story.