Sally McLean. Photo by Julian Dolman.

Sally McLean as “Billie” in Shakespeare Republic, “Beatrice” in Shakespeare Republic Season Two, “Macbeth” in Shakespeare Republic: All The Web’s A Stage (The Lockdown Chronicles) , “Beatrice” in Speaking Daggers and “Hecate MacFindlay” in Dark Arcadia

Sally McLean directing actors Alan Fletcher, Nadine Garner, Michala Banas, Christopher Kirby and Dean Haglund on the sets of Shakespeare Republic, Speaking Daggers and Dark Arcadia.

An award-winning, multi-hyphenate creative, Sally McLean is first and foremost an actor, playing lead, guest and supporting roles in numerous Australian, US and UK film, theatre and television productions since her teens.

A graduate of The Actors Institute UK, some of her notable screen acting credits include “Angie Powers” in the BAFTA Award-winning BBC mini series Bootleg, “Stacy” in the AACTA Award-winning ABC TV series Utopia and recurring guest roles of “Miss Giddens” in the AACTA nominated ABC/CBBC TV series The Worst Year of My Life – Again! and “Barb” in the USA Saturn Award nominated Sony/AMC TV series, Preacher opposite Pip Torrens & Christopher Kirby.

Sally has also played over thirty lead and supporting roles in theatre in both Australia and the UK. Highlights include the UK premiere of the musical drama Annabel’s Requiem, (playing the lead role written for her), what is believed to be the first all-female production of Macbeth in the UK and the professional Australian premier of the hit off-Broadway musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

She created her own boutique production business, Incognita Enterprises, under the Honorary Patronage of Oscar® nominated actor, Sir Nigel Hawthorne KB, CBE in 1997 – an association that continued until his passing in 2001.

Prior to this, she worked in production with the BBC in both their Music & Arts and Commercial Channels Depts. (now UKTV), on series such as One Foot In The Past, Bookmark, The History of British Art, Sister Wendy, Robert Hughes American Visions, Bookworm, Bard on the Box, Poems on the Box and Poetry Nation, during which time she also Chaired the BBC Alternative Program Development Unit and Assistant Chaired the Australian Program Development Unit, submitting several successful television program proposals to the Controllers of BBC1 & 2.

Since her return to Australia, alongside her acting career, she has worked in a variety of production roles for Channel 9, Southern Cross Broadcasting, Freemantle Media and Endemol Southern Star on programs such as Big Brother, Comedy Inc., The X-Factor, Australian Idol and 1 vs 100.

Sally has an extensive background in radio and voiceover, hosting the Afternoon Drive program for three years on local radio 3RPP FM, as well as co-hosting the Breakfast Program for the station for two years (which was the highest rated radio programme across both commercial and community radio stations in the area at the time), going on to be named Presenter of the Year, as decided by her broadcasting peers. She also presented for Radio Trader: 89.7FM, broadcasting from the Australian Museum of Modern Media (whose collection was acquired by ACMI in 2006), as well as voicing national commercials for Australia Post, UK Gold (BBCTV), the National Water Sports Centre, Sleepy Sam’s Bedding Furniture and Mini Jumbucks 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 110 international film festivals, nominated for over 100 awards and won over 60 festival and industry awards to date including Best Director, Best Web Series, Best Actress (for Sally personally) and Best Ensemble Cast. 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.

Another highlight was winning the Best Film Award at the 2020 Falstaff Awards in the USA for Shakespeare Republic Season Three, decided by a jury of academics from around the world. Honorary Mentions for the award that year included the UK’s Shakespeare’s Globe broadcast program, Canada’s Stratford Festival broadcast series and the UK’s National Theatre Live at Home program. Previous winners of this award include the BBC’s Hollow Crown series, Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender & Marion Cotillard.

Sally’s subsequent short film Speaking Daggers was commissioned from this work for the inaugural Arts Learning Festival, premiering at ACMI in Melbourne. The film went on to be officially selected for 22 international film festivals, including being an official selection at the prestigious Academy Awards® qualifying St Kilda Film Festival. The film would go on to win several awards, and be named a Highly Commended Finalist at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Film Festival in the UK, as awarded by the jury, headed by Jury President, Sir Kenneth Branagh.

As well as directing and adapting the works, she appears on screen in both projects alongside fellow actors Nadine Garner, Michala Banas, Alan Fletcher, Scott Major, Christopher Kirby, Dean Haglund, Laura Gardner, Frank Collison, Miguel Perez, Yolanda Ovide, Rob Myles, Dominic Brewer and Caris Vujcec to name but a few.

In 2021, Sally was commissioned by Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia to create, write and direct a student Shakespeare web series, Walking Shadows. The series ran for three seasons, winning several international awards, including Best Director at both the LA WebFest and NZ Web Fest in 2025 for Sally personally and Best Adaptation at the 2025 British Web Awards. The third season of the series ended up ranked as the #1 web series in Australia and in the wider Oceania area and in the Top 10 web series globally (WSWC, 2025).

A second spin-off from Shakespeare Republic, the limited short form series, Dark Arcadia, is currently finishing it’s run on the international film festival circuit. It has won 30 awards to date, including two Best Actress awards, seven awards for Best Directing and two Best Screenwriting awards for Sally personally, as well as being named in the Top 10 web series globally in the 2024 WSWC rankings. Also created, adapted, directed and starring Sally in the role of “Hecate MacFindlay”, the series was funded via grants from Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, Creative Partnerships Australia and the British Shakespeare Association.

Sally’s work in the web series world has been highlighted in the academic tomes Broadcast Your Shakespeare (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017) Short, Narrative & Serialized: a complete guide to the web series phenomenon (Bassaget, Burkholder, 2019) and The Web Series Experiment (Routledge, 2026). Her work with Shakespeare has also 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.

Sally’s 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.

Her experience as a Shakespearean actor and director and thoughts on Shakespeare performance in the 21st Century 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.

Her work adapting Shakespeare for the screen has been further discussed in the Arden Shakespeare collection, Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation, published by Bloomsbury Press in the UK in July 2022, as well as Authenticity and Adaptation, published by Palgrave Macmillan (UK/USA) in February, 2025. Sally’s work is analysed alongside filmmakers such as Guillermo Del Toro, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Zac Snyder, Taika Waititi and James Gunn, among others.

She brings all this experience with Shakespeare together in her long-running teaching program, Playing The Bard.

Sally has been a member of MEAA/Actors Equity for over 35 years. She is an Associate Member of the Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG) and the Australian Writers’ Guild, a former Professional Member of the Australian Film Institute and AACTA (Actor, Director & Producer’s Chapters), and served as a Juror on numerous individual award categories for several years for the AFI Awards and AACTA Awards (the AFI Awards’ successor) until 2016, as well as serving as a Juror for the ATOM Awards in the Best Documentary and Best Web Series Award categories from 2014 to 2019.

She has additionally served as a Jury member for the New Jersey Web Fest, New Zealand Web Fest and New York City (NYC) Web Fest, and as Jury President for the Melbourne Web Fest in Australia and the Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. She is is a former member of the Board of Trustees for the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia and Melbourne Web Fest, as well as being a previous member of British Equity.

She has spoken at various schools and events about the importance of creativity, including being invited to give the Keynote Speech at the 2017 Independent Schools Victoria AGM, to a room of 211 independent school principals, the Victorian Minister for the Arts, the Victorian Shadow Minister for the Arts and members of the Victorian Education Department about the importance of the Arts in education. She has also presented on panels for the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association, Melbourne Web Fest, the Arts Learning Festival and the St Kilda Film Festival.

Sally has additionally held the positions of General Manager for Melbourne Web Fest, was Founding Chair of independent theatre company North of Eight and Founder and Festival Director for Shorts Relief: Flicks For The Fires – a film and web series festival created to fundraise for bushfire relief, held at the Capital Theatre, Melbourne in March 2020.

She has also taught Shakespeare and acting as an industry guest teacher at various institutions including the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia, Montsalvat, Toorak College 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.

More information:
www.sallymclean.com
www.incognitaenterprises.com
www.imdb.com/name/nm0572643