Speaker Details

An icon of Australian comedy, Mary Coustas is best known to her fans as ‘Effie’, the trash-with-flash Madonna of the western suburbs. With a wonderful combination of naivety and clarity, fuzzy logic and shrewd intelligence, Effie is a suburban superstar.

Winner of two awards for Best Comedy Performer, a Logie Award as voted by the Australian public and a Variety Heart Award as voted by her industry peers, Mary Cousta is one of Australia’s best loved character actors and comics.

Effie returned to our screens recently with her new TV show Greeks on the Roof. The show was a huge success and featured some of the world’s biggest stars.

A graduate from Deakin University, Mary began her career with the innovative Handspan Theatre in Melbourne. An invitation to join the cast of Wogs out of Work saw her create her own characters including the inspirational Effie. Confronting Anglo Saxons (Skips) with the own prejudices, Wogs out of Work became the most successful original Australian theatre show ever produced, breaking box office records and touring nationally for over two years.

The phenomenal success of Wogs out of Work led to the creation of the TV sitcom series Acropolis Now in which Mary Coustas appeared for five seasons playing Effie Stephanides, the Greek hairdresser who stole the show with her big mouth and refusal to take lip from anyone.

From there Mary Coustas went on to star in Wog-A-Rama, Waiting for Effie - her own one woman show, and the critically acclaimed Effie X-Posed. In 1998 she performed in the comedy Sylvia for the Melbourne Theatre Company, which received rave reviews. The same year she also hosted the Australian Film Institute Awards.

Mary and Effie’s other numerous television appearances include Effie Just Quietly (SBS), Good Guys Bad Guys, Water Rats, Wildside, the animated film The Magic Pudding, The Ties That Bind a documentary shot in Greece, a guest appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Australian host of the Eurovision Song Contest, and regular roles on Grass Roots and The Secret Life of Us.

On radio, Effie has worked on Melbourne's FOX FM breakfast team and recorded the hit single Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life) with Norman Gunston. Her film credits include Nirvana Street Murder, Hercules Returns and Mull for which she received an AFI nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

An extremely talented master of ceremonies or compere, Effie the Greek Hair-Gel Goddess, will have your audience on the edge of their seats.

For more information please contact
Saxton on +61 3 9811 3500 or email us at speakers@saxton.com.au

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