Benita Collings (b. 1940) actor and television personality, is best known as the longest-serving presenter on ABC TV's Play School. Collings began her theatre training under Dame Doris Fitton at Sydney's Independent Theatre in 1955. Aged 20, she joined the Ensemble Theatre where she gained experience in theatre production as well as in lead acting roles. She started working with the ABC in 1959 and appeared as a presenter in a record 401 episodes of Play School between 1969 and 1999. Her other television credits include roles in Division 4, Homicide, Rafferty's Rules, A Country Practice, The Restless Years and The Sullivans. She has also appeared in feature films including Return to Eden, Sun Struck, and The Knowing. In addition, Collings has recorded nine albums and CDs, mainly for Play School, and has worked as a narrator with the Sydney, Tasmanian, West Australian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and the Sydney Youth Orchestra. She continues to make occasional television and stage appearances. Play School is Australia's most successful and longest-running children's television program and is watched by approximately one million children each day.
