Maminydjama Maymuru (born 1997), known as Magnolia Maymuru, is an
Aboriginal Australian actress and model who won Best Supporting Actress at the 9th
AACTA awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industr ...
, for her portrayal in ''
The Nightingale''. She was born in
Yirrkala
Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory, Australia, southeast of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. Its population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of the ...
in the
Northern Territory of Australia
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
and belongs to the
Yolngu community.
In 2014, as a teenager, she was spotted by a model scout while withdrawing money from an ATM. First, she turned down the offer as she was continuing her education. She agreed to take part in a fashion show and to enter fashion industry, as she met
Mehali Tsangaris, director of NT Fashion Week, while she was shopping. As a model, she used her registered middle name, Magnolia. At the age of 19, Maminydjama Magnolia Maymuru became the first Aboriginal woman from the Northern Territory to enter the Miss World Australia beauty pageant and reached the national finals.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maymuru, Maminydjama
Living people
1997 births
Australian female models
Indigenous Australian actresses
People from the Northern Territory
Yolngu people