The Story Teller (Noni Hazlehurst)

Actor, presenter and broadcaster Noni Hazlehurst AM (b. 1953) studied drama at Flinders University in South Australia, and after graduating gained roles in the television cop shows Division 4, Homicide and Matlock Police. She joined the original cast of The Sullivans in 1976 and from 1978 to 2001 she was a regular presenter on Playschool. In 1982 she won the Australian Film Institute's Best Actress award for her performance in Monkey Grip, the scintillating film adaptation of Helen Garner's novel. She won the AFI Best Actress award again in 1985 for Fran, a harrowing story of a self-destructive single mother, and in 2005 she was named Best Supporting Actress for Little Fish, in which she played the mother of a heroin addict (played by Cate Blanchett). Her performance in Waiting at the Royal (2000) won her the AFI for Best Actress in a television mini-series. Her other films include Candy (2006), based on the novel by Luke Davies; Bruce Beresford's adaptation of Henry Handel Richardson's The Getting of Wisdom (1977); and his Ladies in black (2018), based on the novel by Madeleine St John, and for which Hazlehurst received an AACTA nomination and was named Best Supporting Actress at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. Hazlehurst was the anchor of the Seven Network's Better Homes and Gardens from 1995 to 2004, and for SBS she has presented three seasons of Every family has a secret, and the episode on ageism for the three-part documentary series What does Australia really think about … . Her notable television movies include Waterfront (1985) Nancy Wake (1987), The Shiralee (1987) and Curtin (2007). She played a detective in the television series City Homicide (2007–2011), and had a lead role in all six seasons of A place to call home (2013–2018).

Hazlehurst has earned ARIA nominations for her recordings for children and won Best Supporting Actress Logies for her work in Ride on Stranger (1979) and Waterfront. Offscreen, she is an Ambassador for the children's charity Barnardos and has served on the boards of Film Australia and Belvoir St Theatre. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Flinders University in 2007, and in 1995 she was named a Member of the Order of Australia.

Gift of the artist 2022
© Jaq Grantford