# Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play

The Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) (the trade name for the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA)), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia. The accolade is handed out at the annual Helpmann Awards, which celebrates achievements in musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.
Cate Blanchett has the most wins in this category with four, for Hedda Gabler, Uncle Vanya, Gross und Klein (Big and Small) and The Maids.

## Winners and nominees

In the following list winners are listed first and marked in gold, in boldface, and the nominees are listed below with no highlight.
* Source:
| Year | Actor | Production | Character(s) |
| 2001 (1st) |
| 2001 (1st) | Caroline O'Connor | Piaf | Edith Piaf |
| 2001 (1st) | Amanda Muggleton | The Book Club | Deborah |
| 2001 (1st) | Robyn Nevin | A Cheery Soul | Miss Docker |
| 2001 (1st) | Leah Purcell | Box the Pony | Leah/Steff |
| 2002 (2nd) |
| 2002 (2nd) | Amanda Muggleton | Master Class | Maria Callas |
| 2002 (2nd) | Essie Davis | The School for Scandal | Lady Teazle |
| 2002 (2nd) | Kris McQuade | Cloudstreet | Dolly Pickle |
| 2002 (2nd) | Caroline O'Connor | Bombshells | Various |
| 2003 (3rd) |
| 2003 (3rd) | Rachel Griffiths | Proof | Catherine |
| 2003 (3rd) | Deborah Mailman | The Seven Stages of Grieving (co-written by Mailman) | Woman |
| 2003 (3rd) | Miranda Otto | A Doll's House | Nora Helmer |
| 2003 (3rd) | Sigrid Thornton | The Blue Room | Various |
| 2004 (4th) |
| 2004 (4th) | Maggie Smith | Talking Heads – A Bed Among the Lentils | Susan |
| 2004 (4th) | Carol Burns | A Conversation | The Mother |
| 2004 (4th) | Judy Davis | Victory | Bradshaw |
| 2004 (4th) | Helen Morse | Frozen | Nancy |
| 2005 (5th) |
| 2005 (5th) | Cate Blanchett | Hedda Gabler | Hedda Gabler |
| 2005 (5th) | Julie Forsyth | The Ham Funeral | Alma Lusty |
| 2005 (5th) | Deborah Mailman | The Sapphires | Cynthia Mcrae |
| 2005 (5th) | Pamela Rabe | Dinner | Paige |
| 2006 (6th) |
| 2006 (6th) | Caroline O'Connor | End of the Rainbow | Judy Garland |
| 2006 (6th) | Jennifer Flowers | Doubt | Sister Aloysius |
| 2006 (6th) | Victoria Longley | The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? | Stevie |
| 2006 (6th) | Leah Purcell | Stuff Happens | Condoleezza Rice |
| 2007 (7th) |
| 2007 (7th) | Ursula Yovich | Capricornia | Capricornia |
| 2007 (7th) | Elena Kalinina | Uncle Vanya | Sonia |
| 2007 (7th) | Pamela Rabe | Mother Courage and Her Children | Mother Courage |
| 2007 (7th) | Alison van Reeken | The Carnivores | Nill and Neka |
| 2008 (8th) |
| 2008 (8th) | Leah Purcell | The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table | Annie |
| 2008 (8th) | Kate Dickie | Aalst | Cathy Delaney |
| 2008 (8th) | Catherine McClements | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Martha |
| 2008 (8th) | Genevieve Picot | Rock 'n' Roll | Eleanor/Esme |
| 2009 (9th) |
| 2009 (9th) | Robyn Nevin | Women of Troy | Hecuba |
| 2009 (9th) | Alison Bell | Blackbird | Una |
| 2009 (9th) | Cate Blanchett | War of the Roses | Richard II |
| 2009 (9th) | Pamela Rabe | War of the Roses | Richard III |
| 2010 (10th) |
| 2010 (10th) | Julie Forsyth | Happy Days | Winnie |
| 2010 (10th) | Kathryn Hunter | Kafka's Monkey | Ape |
| 2010 (10th) | Jane Menelaus | August: Osage County | Barbara Fordham |
| 2010 (10th) | Robyn Nevin | August: Osage County | Violet Weston |
| 2011 (11th) |
| 2011 (11th) | Cate Blanchett | Uncle Vanya | Yelena |
| 2011 (11th) | Robin McLeavy | Measure for Measure | Isabella |
| 2011 (11th) | Robyn Nevin | Long Day's Journey into Night | Mary Cavan Tyrone |
| 2011 (11th) | Ursula Yovich | Waltzing the Wilarra | Elsa |
| 2012 (12th) |
| 2012 (12th) | Cate Blanchett | Gross und Klein (Big and Small) | Lotte |
| 2012 (12th) | Robyn Nevin | Neighbourhood Watch | Ana |
| 2012 (12th) | Bernadette Robinson | Songs For Nobodies | Various |
| 2012 (12th) | Helen Thomson | Summer of the Seventeenth Doll | Pearl |
| 2013 (13th) |
| 2013 (13th) | Alison Bell | Hedda Gabler | Hedda Gabler Tesman |
| 2013 (13th) | Alison Bell | Constellations | Marianne |
| 2013 (13th) | Helen Thomson | Mrs. Warren's Profession | Mrs Kitty Warren |
| 2013 (13th) | Christen O'Leary | End of the Rainbow | Judy Garland |
| 2014 (14th) |
| 2014 (14th) | Cate Blanchett | The Maids | Claire |
| 2014 (14th) | Zahra Newman | The Mountaintop | Camae |
| 2014 (14th) | Alison Whyte | The Bloody Chamber | |
| 2014 (14th) | Ursula Yovich | Mother Courage and her Children | Mother Courage |
| 2015 (15th) |
| 2015 (15th) | Pamela Rabe | The Glass Menagerie | |
| 2015 (15th) | Julie Forsyth | Night on Bald Mountain | |
| 2015 (15th) | Robyn Nevin | Suddenly Last Summer | |
| 2015 (15th) | Sarah Peirse | Switzerland | |
| 2016 (16th) |
| 2016 (16th) | Paula Arundell | The Bleeding Tree | |
| 2016 (16th) | Cate Blanchett | The Present | |
| 2016 (16th) | Noni Hazlehurst | Mother | |
| 2016 (16th) | Catherine McClements | The Events | |
| 2017 (17th) |
| 2017 (17th) | Kate Mulvany | Richard 3 | |
| 2017 (17th) | Helen Morse | John | |
| 2017 (17th) | Leah Purcell | The Drover's Wife | |
| 2017 (17th) | Alison Whyte | Faith Healer | |
| 2018 (18th) |
| 2018 (18th) | Pamela Rabe | The Children | |
| 2018 (18th) | Miranda Daughtry | A Doll's House | |
| 2018 (18th) | Helen Morse | Memorial | |
| 2018 (18th) | Sarah Peirse | The Children | |
| 2019 (19th) |
| 2019 (19th) | Kate Mulvany | Every Brilliant Thing | |
| 2019 (19th) | Helen Thomson | Mary Stuart | Queen Elizabeth I |
| 2019 (19th) | Sarah Snook | Saint Joan | Saint Joan |
| 2019 (19th) | Melita Jurisic | Arbus & West | Mae West |
| 2019 (19th) | Paula Arundell | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two) | Hermione Granger (older) |