An award-winning multi-hyphenate creative, Sally McLean began her work in the entertainment biz as an actor in her mid-teens and has since performed lead, guest and supporting roles in numerous Australian, US and UK film, theatre and television productions.
A graduate of The Actors Institute, London, Sally’s work in screen production began with her years working at the BBC in London for BBC Music & Arts. This led to her writing and producing her first independent feature film " Little Rain Must Fall" (thought to be the first drama shot on DV in the UK) and forming her own production business, Incognita Enterprises, under the guidance of Honorary Patron, Sir Nigel Hawthorne KB, CBE, an association that continued until his passing in December 2001.
Since her return to Australia, Sally has worked in production for Channel Nine, Endemol Southern Star and others on programs such as "Comedy Inc", "Big Brother", "Australian Idol", "The X-Factor" and "1 VS 100", among others.
She is the Creator/Director and lead ensemble member of the multi award-winning digital series Shakespeare Republic which has been officially selected and screened at over 100 international film festivals, nominated for over 90 awards and won over 50 awards to date including Best Director, Best Web Series, Best Actress (for Sally personally) and Best Ensemble Cast in numerous festivals and industry awards. Fellow cast include Nadine Garner, Michala Banas, Alan Fletcher, Scott Major, Christopher Kirby and Dean Haglund, among others.
A highlight was being the recipient of the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award for Best Digital Series in the USA in 2017, which saw Sally join the ranks of fellow CINE alumni such as Steven Spielberg (the then CINE President) Oprah Winfrey, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jim Henson, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Spike Lee, Billy Crystal, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Sydney Pollack, among others. Fellow award winners that year were Christian Slater’s Mr Robot, Variety’s Actors on Actors and National Geographic’s MARS series.
The series was acquired for the official collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia in 2018 and named as an “Acquisition Highlight” in the NFSA’s 2018/19 Annual Report. The third season of the series was acquired and added to the official collection at the NFSA in 2020.
Her Shakespeare short film, "Speaking Daggers", a spin off from the series, was selected for 22 international film festivals – winning 3 awards, as well as a “Highly Commended” Finalist nod from Sir Kenneth Branagh in his role as Jury President for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Shakespeare Film Festival in the UK in 2017.
Sally’s work with Shakespeare Republic has been the subject of several academic presentations and plenary panels at Early Modern Literature and Shakespeare seminars and conferences in Australia, the UK and USA from 2016 to now. Her first published work on Shakespeare, an essay exploring her methodology behind Shakespeare Republic and Shakespeare performance in general, was published in the USA by Routledge Press in 2020 as part of the academic essay collection, "Playfulness In Shakespearean Adaptations".
The third season of Shakespeare Republic has been taught at Syracuse University, USA, discussed in papers presented at the Shakespeare Association of America Conference (USA) and BritGrad Conference (UK) and is also further explored in the Arden Shakespeare collection, "Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation", published by Bloomsbury Press in the UK in July 2022.
Sally’s experience as a Shakespearean actor and director and thoughts on Shakespeare performance in the 21st Century in general were also featured in the book Shakespeare & The Actor through interviews with Professor Emerita, British Shakespeare Association Honorary Fellow and author Lois Potter, alongside actors such as Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Sir Antony Sher, among others. The book was published by Oxford University Press in September 2022.
She additionally teaches Shakespeare as an industry guest teacher at various institutions, including the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia and the Equity Foundation.
Sally continues to work as an actor in film & TV while developing several projects – Shakespeare-related and not – for the stage and screen.
FULL BIO: https://sallymclean.com/about-sally/
IMDB PROFILE: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0572643