Actor, presenter, director, writer and broadcaster, Noni Hazlehurst AM studied Drama at Flinders University in South Australia. After graduating, she worked her way through numerous television roles, before joining the original cast of The Sullivans in 1976. From 1978 to 2002 she was a regular presenter on Play School. She has won four Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, including two for Best Actress, for Monkey Grip (1982) and Fran (1985), and two Logies for Ride On Stranger (1979) and Waterfront (1984). In 2016, she became only the second woman to be inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame. Hazlehurst was the anchor of the Seven Network's Better Homes and Gardens from 1995 to 2004, and has presented three seasons of SBS's Every Family Has a Secret (2019-2024). Other notable works include Nancy Wake (1987), The Shiralee (1987) and Curtin (2007), as well as a lead role as matriarch Elizabeth Bligh in all six seasons of A Place to Call Home (2013-2018). Her theatrical appearances have earned multiple awards and she has received several ARIA nominations for her recordings for children.
Offscreen, she has been an ambassador for several children's welfare organisations, including Barnardos, and she is currently the patron of the Australian Children's Laureate Foundation. She has served on the boards of the AFI/Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, Film Australia and Belvoir St Theatre, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Flinders University in 2007. In 1995, she was named a Member of the Order of Australia.
