Robyn Malcolm

Robyn Malcolm

Malcolm at the Green Party Campaign launch for the 2008 general election
Born 15 March 1965
Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand
Occupation Actress
Years active 1988–present
Relatives Roger Sutton (brother in law)

Robyn Malcolm (born 15 March 1965)[1][2] is a New Zealand actress, best known for six seasons of playing Cheryl West, matriarch to a sometimes criminal working-class family in the television series Outrageous Fortune, as well as Kirsty Corella in the Australian television series Rake.[3]

Early life and education

Malcolm attended Ashburton College,[4] and graduated from Toi Whakaari (New Zealand Drama School) in 1987.[5] She won an International Actors Fellowship at the Globe Theatre in London for 2003.[6]

Career

Malcolm's first long-running television role was nurse Ellen Crozier in soap opera Shortland Street. She appeared on the show for five years and was nominated for Best Actress at the 1998 TV Guide Television Awards. She was nominated again for her lead role in television feature, Clare, based on the cervical cancer experiment at Auckland's National Women's Hospital which resulted in the Cartwright Inquiry.

In 1999, Malcolm was one of the founding members of the New Zealand Actors' Company along with Tim Balme, Katie Wolfe and Simon Bennett. The company produced and toured a number of successful stage productions throughout New Zealand.

In 2005, Malcolm took on the role of Cheryl West, matriarch of the West family, in Outrageous Fortune. Mixing comedy and drama, the show became one of the highest rating and awarded in New Zealand history. Malcolm won NZ television awards for the role including the Qantas TV Awards for Best Actress in 2005 and 2008, TV Guide Best Actress in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and Air NZ Screen Awards Best Actress in 2007.

Malcolm won the Woman's Day Readers’ Choice Award for Favourite New Zealand Female Personality in 2005, and New Zealand's sexiest woman at the 2007 TV Guide Best on the Box awards.[7]

Malcolm co-starred in 2010 feature film The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell, playing mother to a family obsessed with go-karting and motorsports. She has also had small roles in movies Absent Without Leave directed by John Laing, The Last Tattoo directed by John Reid, Gaylene Preston's Perfect Strangers, and Christine Jeffs' Sylvia. She had a minor role as Morwen in the second film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Personal life

Malcolm has two sons.[8] Her sister is married to Roger Sutton, the former CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.[9]

Activism

Malcolm voiced Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand advertisements for the New Zealand general election, 2008.[10]

Malcolm has helped spearhead an actors' union campaign to negotiate standard contracts for actors in The Hobbit films. The producers refused, saying that collective bargaining would be considered price-fixing and therefore illegal under New Zealand law. The situation escalated into international calls for an actors' boycott of the films, but the boycott was called off. Several days later, the producers said they were considering moving the films to another country as they could not be guaranteed stability in New Zealand.[11] In response, the ruling National Party made several controversial changes to New Zealand's employment laws, and passed legislation explicitly controlling people working on the Hobbit movies.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1990–
1991		 Shark in the Park Janet Finn TV series
1992 Absent Without Leave Betty
1992 Married Maddie 1 episode
1993 Joyful & Triumphant Raewyn TV movie
1994 Last Tattoo, TheThe Last Tattoo Working girl
1994–
1999		 Shortland Street Nurse Ellen Crozier TV series
1999 Tribe, TheThe Tribe Ma'am Episode: "2.2"
2000 Clare Clare Matheson TV series
2001 Atlantis High Violet Profusion TV series
2002 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, TheThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Morwen
2003 Mercy Peak Liz Episode: "When Ken Met Wendy"
Episode: "The Uses of Pork"
2003 Perfect Strangers Aileen
2003 Sylvia 1st woman at Ted Hughes' lecture
2004 Serial Killers Pauline 7 episodes
2005 Boogeyman Dr. Matheson
2005–
2010		 Outrageous Fortune Cheryl West 107 episodes
2009 Lovely Bones, TheThe Lovely Bones Foreman's wife (uncredited)
2010 Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell, TheThe Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell Gail
2010 - 2012 Rake Kirsty Corella Episode: "R vs Corella"
Episode: "R v Floyd"
Episode: "R v Turner"
2011 Burning Man Kathryn
2012 Drift Kat Post-production
2013–
present		 Agent Anna Anna TV series
2013–14 Upper Middle Bogan Julie Wheeler Main role
2013 Top of the Lake Anita

Theatre

Year Title Role Theatre
1988 Threepenny Opera, TheThe Threepenny Opera Lucy Brown Downstage Theatre
1988 Rivers of China, TheThe Rivers of China Various Downstage Theatre
1988 Les Liaisons dangereuses Cecile de Valonges Downstage Theatre
1988 Judy Various Downstage Theatre
1988 Jones & Jones Ida Baker Downstage Theatre
1988 Gulls Puppeteer Downstage Theatre
1989 Twelfth Night Viola BATS Theatre
1989 Horse of Bernada Alba, TheThe Horse of Bernada Alba Martirio Downstage Theatre
1989 Othello Bianca Downstage Theatre
1989 Aunt Daisy Various Downstage Theatre
1990 Sweet Nothings Various NZ Tour
1990 Serious Money Mary Lou Baines / Various Downstage Theatre
1990 Macbeth Ross / Hecate Downstage Theatre
1990 Hamlet Ophelia BATS Theatre
1990 End of the Golden Weather Various Downstage Theatre
1990 Conquest of the South Pole La Braukman BATS Theatre
1991 Weed Raewyn Circa Theatre
1991 Via Satellite Chrissy Circa Theatre
1991 Importance of Being Earnest, TheThe Importance of Being Earnest Cecily Cardew Downstage Theatre
1991 Songs for Uncle Scrim Various Circa Theatre
1991 A Pack of Girls Raewyn Downstage Theatre
1993 Two Weeks with the Queen Various Circa Theatre
1993 Lettice & Lovage Miss Farmer Circa Theatre
1995 Othello Emilia Watershed Theatre
1999 Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice Downstage Theatre
2000 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Maggie the Cat Downstage Theatre
2000 A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania NZ Actors Company
2001 A Way of Life Jenny NZ Actors Company
2001 A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania NZ Actors Company
2002 Middle-Age Spread Judy Auckland Theatre Company
2002 Queen Leah Kent / Caius NZ Actors Company
2005 Duchess of Malfi, TheThe Duchess of Malfi Cariolla Auckland Theatre Company
2007 Cut, TheThe Cut Susan Silo Theatre
2010 Happy Days Winnie Silo Theatre

References

  1. ↑ Reid, Neil (3 January 2010). "TV star tells why she's joined Greenpeace". Sunday News. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  2. ↑ Neville, Alice (21 March 2010). "TV stars' outrageous sexiness". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  3. ↑ http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/celebrity/robyn-malcolms-brave-new-world/
  4. ↑ Collins, Simon (21 July 2009). "Celebs go toe-to-toe on smacks". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  5. ↑ Hughes, Andrew; Wix, Olivia (26 November 2009). "The Job Tour: Movie and acting careers in Wellington". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "Artists take their talent to the world". The New Zealand Herald. 22 May 2003. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  7. ↑ "Westie named NZ's sexiest woman". Stuff.co.nz. 15 November 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  8. ↑ Fraser, Fiona (16 August 2010). "Robyn Malcolm's double life". New Zealand Woman's Weekly. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  9. ↑ Hampton, Jeff. "Unconventional lines man appointed new quake boss". TV3 News. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  10. ↑ "Future focus at Green campaign launch". Stuff.co.nz. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  11. ↑ Paul Harper, Derek Cheng and Amelia Wade (21 October 2010). "Hobbit loss 'potential tragedy for NZ film'". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 5 November 2011.

External links