Ngaire Pigram

Ngaire Pigram is an Aboriginal Australian singer, dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director from Western Australia. She has worked on stage and screen.

Ngaire Pirgram is from Broome, Western Australia,^[1] daughter of Stephen Pigram. She isnd a Yawuru woman.^[2]

After attaining a Certificate IV in Aboriginal Theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Broome, Pigram was accepted into the three-year diploma course, and in 2004 moved to Perth to pursue further studies in acting.^[1]

Pigram is a singer, dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director.^[1]

One of her earliest film roles was playing the lead in Beck Cole's Plains Empty, which screened at Sundance Film Festival in 2005.^[1]

She performed a dancer in Jimmy Chi's film 2009 Bran Nue Dae, a film version of the stage musical.^[1]

In 2013 she was given the opportunity by Screenwest^[1] to write and direct a short film, Dark Whispers, which was produced by Kelrick Martin.^[3] Her sister Naomi played the lead role, and won a WOW! Award for her performance.^[1]

In 2020 she played Leonie, sister of the local police officer Fran, in the second series of Mystery Road.^[4] Other screen performances include Sweet As,^[5] Firebite^[6] Mad Bastards,^[7] and a guest role in The Heights.^[1]

In September 2020, Pigram was selected as one of eight participants in a new writing and directing initiative organised by WA Indigenous production companies Pink Pepper and Ramu Productions, along with and New Zealand company Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, called the RED project. The project consisted of development workshops enabling each participant to write and direct a 10-minute short film, which would be part of a single anthology 80-minute feature film (working title RED) consisting of stories from a female Aboriginal perspective. The other participants were Kodie Bedford, Debbie Carmody, Kelli Cross, Karla Hart, Chantelle Murray, Jub Clerc, and Mitch Torres.^[8][9]

Pigram played Kay in The Sapphires in 2011 with the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney, which toured to London,^[1][10] and in 2019 played Gail in a touring production of the musical directed by its writer, Tony Briggs.^[11][12][13]

She played Aunty Theresa in a 2020 revival of the stage production of Bran Nue Dae.^[14] and

She worked in theatre between 2015 and 2018, performing in Marrugeku's Cut The Sky. The play, which shone an Indigenous perspective on climate change,^[1] toured around the world during those three years.^[15][16] The play was based on an historic Aboriginal land rights protest, and featured poems by Edwin Lee Mulligan and songs by singer-songwriters Ngaiire and Nick Cave,^[17] which were sung by Pigram.^[18]

For her performance in the second series of Mystery Road she was nominated for the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama.^[2]

• Ngaire Pigram at IMDb
• Ngaire Pigram on AusStage