The Biography

Magda Szubanski AO (born Magdalene Mary Therese Szubanski 12 April 1961) is an Australian television and film actress, comedian, writer and LGBT rights activist. Szubanski's career started as a writer and performer of sketch comedy and has since progressed to production of TV, film acting, and musical theatre. In 1985, while performing in a University of Melbourne revue of Too Cool for Sandals, Szubanski, Michael Veitch, Tom Gleisner and others were talent-spotted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) producers, which led to The D-Generation television sketch comedy show. Szubanski was one of the creators and performers of the Fast Forward television sketch comedy for the Seven Network, in which she played various characters, including Pixie-Anne Wheatley, Chenille from the Institute de Beauté, Wee Mary MacGregor, Joan Kirner and Michelle Grogan. Szubanski famously played Sharon Strzelecki on Australian comedy show Kath & Kim which ran for four seasons. In 2015, Szubanski released her first book; a memoir titled Reckoning which had themes of familial trauma and accepting her sexual identity as a lesbian. It won the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non fiction, as well as "Book of the Year" and "Biography of the Year" at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Szubanski released a follow-up memoir, I Can't Tell You But I Will, in September 2026. The book chronicles her complicated relationship with—and the demise of—her mother, as well as her cancer diagnosis and recovery.