# Marta Dusseldorp

Marta Dusseldorp is an Australian stage, film and theatre actress. Her television credits include BlackJack, Crownies (and its spin-off Janet King), Jack Irish and A Place to Call Home.
She is also a producer, as co-founder and co-owner with her husband Ben Winspear of Archipelago Productions in Hobart, Tasmania.

## Early life and education

Dusseldorp is the granddaughter of Dutch-born engineer Dick Dusseldorp, the founder of Lendlease. Her maternal grandfather was Sandy Robertson, a Sydney paediatrician, whose forebears were also medical doctors. Her great-grandfather was one of seven brothers in a family from Dumbarton, on the west coast of Scotland, in which eight of ten sons studied medicine at the University of Glasgow. Dusseldorp was the subject of an episode of the television genealogical documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? that first screened on SBS on 14 May 2019.
She attended Ascham School and then Geelong Grammar School, graduating in 1990, and the University of New South Wales, where she majored in theatre and film for two years. She then went on to study at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.

## Career
### Stage

Dusseldorp started her career on the stage, performing in productions of The Lost Echo, The War of the Roses (Shakespeare), and The Bourgeois Gentleman. She has worked with Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Griffin, The Ensemble, Bell Shakespeare, and Melbourne Theatre Company.
She returned to the stage in 2016 in the premiere of Benedict Andrews' play Gloria with the Griffin Theatre Company. In November 2017, Dusseldorp and her husband Ben Winspear played the couple in Joanna Murray-Smith's stage adaptation of Scenes from a Marriage for the Queensland Theatre Company.

### Television

Dusseldorp played Sam Lawson in the telemovie series BlackJack (2003–2007). In 2011 she played the character of Janet King in the 2011 ABC1 drama series Crownies, her breakout role, which she regarded as "a gift". She reprised the role in the 2014 spin-off Janet King. She played Linda Hillier opposite Guy Pearce in all of the Jack Irish TV series, which ran from 2012 to 2021.
She played Sarah Adams in the series A Place to Call Home, which was the most-watched drama series in 2013, and ran until 2018.
In 2020, Dusseldorp was announced to appear in Foxtel drama Wentworth in the role of Shelia Bausch.
In 2020, she played the role of Erica Bowden in the film version of the romantic comedy Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt), which the author, Monica Zanetti, wrote based on her own stage play.
Dusseldorp is co-creator and producer of the 2023 comedy series Bay of Fires, also taking a lead role as a wealthy businesswoman, along with a number of other prominent actresses, such as Kerry Fox, Pamela Rabe, and Yael Stone. Bay of Fires was renewed for a second series in 2024. Dusseldorp was also announced as part of the cast for With or Without You.

## Recognition and awards

Dusseldorp won the award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play in the 2009 Helpmann Awards for her performance as Queen Margaret in Benedict Andrews' The War of the Roses with the Sydney Theatre Company.

## Other activities

Dusseldorp and husband Ben Winspear set up their own stage and screen company, Archipelago Productions, after moving to Hobart, Tasmania, in 2018. Archipelago produces films, stage productions, art installations, and music.
In 2022 Düsseldorp was named as a member of the Screen Australia board and its campaign of 'Make It Australian'.
As of 2023, Dusseldorp is an ambassador for Save the Children Australia, in which role she has visited remote Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory. and an advocate for refugees as Australian representative in Australia for UNHCR.

## Personal life

Dusseldorp is married to fellow actor Ben Winspear, and they have two children. Winspear, a NIDA-trained actor, has had a significant career in the theatre, including a stint as resident director of Sydney Theatre Company. He was born in Wagga Wagga but raised in Hobart, and the whole family moved there from Sydney in 2018. He was a stay-at-home parent in 2020.

## Filmography
### Films

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | Paradise Road | Helen van Praagh | |
| 1998 | Praise | Rachel | |
| 2000 | Innocence | Monique | |
| 2001 | Elly | Elly | Short film |
| 2002 | Baggage Claim | Lisa | Short film |
| 2011 | Burning Man | Lisa | |
| 2013 | The Railway Man | Memsahib (uncredited) | |
| 2020 | Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt) | Erica | |
| 2025 | With or Without You | Sharon | |

### Television

| Year | Television show | Role | Notes |
| 1992 | G.P. | Sophie | "Dial the Universe" (#4.25) |
| 1996 | Mercury | Lily-Ann Venables | "Bad News Is Good News" (#1.13) |
| 1997 | Fable | Sarah | TV movie |
| 1999 | Halifax f.p. | Glenys Lund | "A Murder of Crows" (#1.14) |
| 2000 | All Saints | Inspector Debbie Bloom | 4 episodes |
| 2000 | Murder Call | Marion Dreyfuss | "Last Act" (#3.16) |
| 2002 | Kangaroo Creek Gang | Actress | |
| 2002 | Farscape | Officer Yal Henta | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | Young Lions | Catherine McGregor | "Boy School Bullies" (#1.5) |
| 2003 | After the Deluge | Eva | TV movie |
| 2003 | MDA | Joanna Gilchrist | 2 episodes |
| 2004 | BlackJack: Sweet Science | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2005 | BlackJack: In the Money | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2005 | BlackJack: Ace Point Game | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2005 | Hell Has Harbour Views | Helen | TV movie |
| 2006 | BlackJack: Dead Memory | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2006 | BlackJack: At the Gates | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2007 | BlackJack: Ghosts | Sam Lawson | TV movie |
| 2010 | Rescue: Special Ops | Lisa Hartigan | "Locked In" (#2.3) |
| 2011 | Crownies | Janet King | 22 episodes |
| 2012 | Jack Irish: Black Tide | Linda Hillier | TV movie |
| 2012 | Jack Irish: Bad Debts | Linda Hillier | TV movie |
| 2012 | Devil's Dust | Meredith Hellicar | 2 episodes |
| 2013 | Precinct 13 | Anne Chalmers | 1 episode |
| 2013–18 | A Place to Call Home | Sarah Adams | 67 episodes |
| 2014 | Jack Irish: Dead Point | Linda Hillier | TV movie |
| 2014–17 | Janet King | Janet King | 24 episodes |
| 2014 | Life on Us | Narrator | SBS documentary |
| 2016 | Hatch, Match & Dispatch | Narrator | ABC documentary |
| 2016–21 | Jack Irish | Linda Hillier | 3 series (14 episodes) |
| 2020 | Stateless | Margot | 6 episodes |
| 2020–21 | Wentworth | Sheila Bausch | Special guest star (4 episodes) |
| 2021 | Wentworth Unlocked | Self | TV special |
| 2022 | The Twelve | Lucy Bloom | 10 episodes |
| 2022 | Inside the Sydney Opera House | Narrator/Self | 3 episodes |
| 2023 | Appetite | Voicing | |
| 2023, 2025 | Bay of Fires | Stella Heikkinen | Main role |

### Production

| Year | Title | Role |
| 2016–17 | Janet King | Associate Producer |
| 2023–25 | Bay of Fires | Producer |
| 2024 | With or Without You | Executive Producer |