# Robyn Malcolm

Robyn Jane Malcolm MNZM (born 1965) is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the soap opera Shortland Street. She is best known for playing Cheryl West, matriarch to a sometimes criminal working-class family, in the television series Outrageous Fortune. She has also worked in Australia, including roles in the TV series Rake and Upper Middle Bogan. She plays the lead role in the six-part 2023 NZ drama After the Party.

## Early life and education

Robyn Jane Malcolm was born in 1965 in Ashburton, New Zealand.
She attended Ashburton College, and graduated from Toi Whakaari (New Zealand Drama School) with a Diploma in Acting in 1987.

## Career

Malcolm's first long-running television role was nurse Ellen Crozier in soap opera Shortland Street. She appeared on the show for over five years.
She played the 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-rated and most honoured in New Zealand history.
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.
She played Kirsty Corella in the Australian television series Rake, and Julie Wheeler in Upper Middle Bogan.
She plays Mrs Keene on the 2023 drama series Black Bird.
Malcolm plays the lead role in the six-part drama After the Party, which aired on TVNZ from 29 October 2023. The Guardian reviewer Luke Buckmaster called it "one of the greatest performances in any TV show in years".
On 31 January 2025, Malcolm was named in the cast for Netflix series The Survivors.

## Recognition, awards, and honours

Malcolm was nominated for Best Actress at the 1998 TV Guide Television Awards for her work in Shortland Street. She was nominated again for her role in Clare.
In 2003, Malcolm won an International Actors Fellowship at the Globe Theatre in London.
For her role in Outrageous Fortune, Malcolm won several television awards, 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.
In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Malcolm was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to television and theatre.
In March 2024 she was honoured with a Best Actress accolade at the Series Mania film festival in Lille, France. She received this prestigious award in the International Panorama section for her outstanding performance in After the Party, a series she co-created with writer Dianne Taylor. This recognition marked a significant milestone as the first time a New Zealand entry had been considered for an award at the festival.

## Filmography
### Films

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1992 | Absent Without Leave | Betty | |
| 1994 | The Last Tattoo | Working girl | |
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Morwen | |
| 2003 | Perfect Strangers | Aileen | |
| 2003 | Sylvia | 1st woman at Ted Hughes' lecture | |
| 2005 | Boogeyman | Dr. Matheson | |
| 2009 | The Lovely Bones | Foreman's wife | uncredited |
| 2010 | The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell | Gail Snell | |
| 2011 | Burning Man | Kathryn Dent | |
| 2013 | Drift | Kat Kelly | |
| 2015 | Dream Baby | Marianne | Short film |
| 2016 | Edith | Barmaid | Short film |
| 2017 | Goodness Grows Here | Trish | Short film |
| 2017 | Hostiles | Minnie McGowan | |
| 2018 | Twenty One Points | Mum | Short film |
| 2018 | Charmer | Woman | Short film |
| 2020 | This Town | Pam | |
| 2024 | The Moon Is Upside Down | Hilary | |
Key :
| † | Denotes films that have not yet been released |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1989 | Shark in the Park | Janice | Guest role (1 episode) |
| 1990–91 | Shark in the Park | Janet Finn | Guest role (2 episodes) |
| 1992 | Married | Maddie | |
| 1993 | Joyful & Triumphant | Raewyn | Television film |
| 1994–99 | Shortland Street | Ellen Crozier | Main role (600 episodes) |
| 1999 | The Tribe | Ma'am | Guest role (1 episode) |
| 2000 | Clare | Clare Matheson | Television film |
| 2000 | Op' Stars | Narrator | Television documentary |
| 2001 | Atlantis High | Violet Profusion | Guest role (1 episode) |
| 2003 | Mercy Peak | Liz | Guest role (2 episodes) |
| 2003 | Intrepid Journeys | Herself | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Serial Killers | Pauline | Lead role (7 episodes) |
| 2005–10 | Outrageous Fortune | Cheryl West | Lead role |
| 2009 | bro'Town | Herself | 1 episode |
| 2009 | Big Night In | Herself | Television special |
| 2009 | The Jaquie Brown Diaries | Herself | Guest (1 episode) |
| 2010–14 | Rake | Kirsty Corella | Recurring role (11 episodes) |
| 2013 | Top of the Lake | Anita | Main role (series 1; 7 episodes) |
| 2013–14 | Agent Anna | Anna Kingston | Lead role; also executive producer |
| 2013–16 | Upper Middle Bogan | Julie Wheeler | Main role |
| 2014 | Charlotte: A Life Without Limbs | Presenter | Television documentary |
| 2015 | The Brokenwood Mysteries | Ruth Phelps | Episode: "To Die or Not to Die" |
| 2015 | The Principal | Sonya | Guest role (1 episode) |
| 2016–18 | Wanted | Donna Walsh | Recurring role (10 episodes) |
| 2016 | The Code | Marina Baxter | Main role (series 2: 6 episodes) |
| 2017 | Wake in Fright | Ursula Hynes | miniseries |
| 2018–21 | Harrow | Maxine Pavich | Main role |
| 2018 | Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You | Irene Newton-John | miniseries |
| 2018–19 | The Outpost | Elinor | Main role (season 1–2: 23 episodes) |
| 2021 | My Life is Murder | Tamara Innes | Episode : "Call of the Wild" |
| 2022 | Black Bird | Sammy Keen | Recurring role |
| 2023 | Far North | Heather | Main role (season 1) |
| 2023 | After the Party | Penny Wilding | Main role |
| 2024 | Heartbreak High | Cait White | Guest role (Season 2, Episode 5) |
| 2025 | The Survivors | Verity Elliott | TV series |
Key :
| † | Denotes television series that have not yet been aired |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Theatre |
| 1988 | The Threepenny Opera | Lucy Brown | Downstage Theatre |
| 1988 | The 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 | The House of Bernarda 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 | The 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 | The 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 and 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 | The Duchess of Malfi | Cariolla | Auckland Theatre Company |
| 2007 | The Cut | Susan | Silo Theatre |
| 2010 | Happy Days | Winnie | Silo Theatre |
| 2014 | The Good Person of Szechwan | Shen Teh | Auckland Theatre Company |

## Personal life

Malcolm was formerly married to Allan Clark and has two sons. She is in a relationship with Scottish actor Peter Mullan, whom she met while filming Top of the Lake in 2013. Her sister is married to Roger Sutton, the former CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

### Activism

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