{"id":855586,"date":"2026-08-15T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855586\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T01:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:00:12","slug":"deborah-mailman-makes-logies-history-as-first-indigenous-hall-of-fame-inductee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855586\/","title":{"rendered":"Deborah Mailman makes Logies history as first Indigenous Hall of Fame inductee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deborah Mailman<\/a> will make Logies<\/a> history on Sunday night, becoming the first Indigenous person inducted into the awards\u2019 Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

The actor will also become the sixth woman to receive the honour since the Hall of Fame<\/a> was established more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/p>\n

Deborah Mailman will become the first Indigenous person inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

For Mailman, 54, the news initially left her stunned, with the star telling The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> she had to read the email again before it began to sink in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a moment of almost bursting into tears,\u201d the Offspring actor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t quite understand it all, to be honest. It took some time for it to land because I was like, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 I had to re-read the email and go, \u2018Hang on, what?\u2019 And then when I started thinking [about it], I got really quite emotional about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award, which was introduced in 1984, recognises \u201coutstanding and continued contribution and enrichment to Australian television culture by an individual, a group of individuals, or a program\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mailman, who is of Bidjara and M\u0101ori descent, said the historic first was \u201ca long time coming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean that for just for me, but in terms of us as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country, and in this industry,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actor credited the generation who came before her and created opportunities for those who followed, saying, \u201cI acknowledge that I\u2019m only here because of the hard work that\u2019s gone before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/p>\n

Deborah Mailman in Bite Club.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Mailman has spent decades breaking ground on Australian screens; her first film role in 1998\u2019s Radiance saw her become the first Indigenous woman to win an Australian Film Institute Award for best actress in a leading role.<\/p>\n

Her television success continued with The Secret Life of Us<\/a>, where her portrayal of Kelly Lewis earned her Logies in 2002 and 2004.<\/p>\n

Since then, she has appeared in some of Australia\u2019s best-known productions, including Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Sapphires, Offspring, Redfern Now, Mystery Road and Total Control.<\/p>\n

She has six Logies to her name, most recently winning best lead actress in a drama for Total Control in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Deborah Mailman with her The Secret Life of Us co-stars (from left) Samuel Johnson, Joel Edgerton, Spencer McLaren and Abi Tucker at the 2002 Logie Awards, at which Mailman won most outstanding actress in a drama series.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mailman will now join only five other women in the Hall of Fame: Magda Szubanski<\/a>, Rebecca Gibney<\/a>, Kerri-Anne Kennerley<\/a>, Noni Hazlehurst<\/a> and Ruth Cracknell.<\/p>\n

The actor said the small number was difficult to ignore, telling the outlet: \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s any sort of sugarcoating that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Mailman\u2019s illustrious career, the prospect of taking to the stage at the award ceremony is still daunting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really, really, really nervous, but I\u2019m also trying to just enjoy what this is about as well,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deborah Mailman will make Logies history on Sunday night, becoming the first Indigenous person inducted into the awards\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-855586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}