Meet our Alumni

Most famous for his character Dame Edna Everage, Barry Humphries is one of Australia's greatest entertainers.

In 1959 Humphries moved to England to pursue an acting career. The following year he gave his first major performance on the London stage in Oliver!. He also wrote for comedian Peter Cook's satirical magazine Private Eye and created the cartoon strip The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie, which was later produced as a film in which Humphries appeared in three roles.

Humphries is best known for his one-man shows featuring alter-egos such as Moonee Ponds housewife Dame Edna Everage and the inebriated cultural attaché Les Patterson. In 1997 he received the Sir Peter Ustinov Award for Comedy. His Broadway hit show Dame Edna: The Royal Tour received a Special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Event. It also won the Special Achievement Award from the Outer Critics Circle and Best Play and Best Actor in the National Broadway Theatre Awards.

Humphries has acted in several films including Dr Fischer of Geneva (1985), Immortal Beloved (1994), Welcome To Woop Woop (1997) and Nicholas Nickelby (2002). His television programmes include The Life and Death of Sandy Stone (1991), Barry Humphries' Flashbacks (1999) and The Dame Edna Treatment (2007). He is also a well regarded landscape painter and author.

In 1993 he won the J.R. Ackerley Prize for his autobiography More Please. Humphries was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1982 and as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007 for his services to entertainment. He has received an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University and an Honorary Doctorate of Law from The University of Melbourne.