PRESS RELEASE
Indigenous writer, actor and director Wayne Blair – known internationally for his role with the award winning film The Sapphires – has been named winner of QUT's Outstanding Alumni Award for the Creative Industries Faculty at a ceremony in Brisbane today.
Mr Blair also received a Special Excellence Award for Contributions to the Creative Arts.
As one of Australia's leading stage and screen professionals, Mr Blair received international acclaim as director of the feature film The Sapphires, staring his QUT classmate Deborah Mailman.
The Sapphires, which has played all over the world since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, was the highest grossing Australian film of 2012 and won 11 awards from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.
Known as one of the country's leading storytellers about Indigenous Australia, Mr Blair has most recently acted and directed in the ABC drama series Redfern Now.
He is a Batjala Mununjali Wakkawakka man who finished his secondary schooling in Rockhampton, where he excelled at cricket and rugby league and first became interested in acting and dance.
His first degree was a Bachelor of Business at QUT but in 1997 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Acting).
He went on to appear as an actor in popular television dramas such as All Saints and Water Rats, and to work as an actor and director with most of Australia's leading theatre companies, including the Bell Shakespeare Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Company B Belvoir Street.
In the mid-2000s he started being recognised as a writer for theatre, film and television.
He won the Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film for Djarn Djarns, which he wrote and directed.
He wrote the innovative Indigenous production Bloodland (performed in traditional language) for the Sydney Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre Company in 2011.
Mr Blair has received a number of prestigious industry fellowships, including the Richard Wherrett Fellowship (Sydney Theatre Company), the Andrew Myer Fellowship (Australian Film, Television and Radio School), and the Bob Maza Fellowship (Screen Australia).
He was also the QUT Artist in Residence in 2012.