She was educated at the Queensland University of Technology (she majored in drama), her theatre work includes the all aboriginal Sydney Theatre Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Sydney Belvoir Street Theatre production of The Small Poppies and the touring production of Seven Stages of Grieving.She is the first Aboriginal actress to win a AFI Best Actress Award. She works at the Aboriginal theatre company Kooemba Djarra in Brisbane and co-wrote the play Seven Stages of Grieving.

She is a Ngati Porou. An iwi/tribe on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand.Appears on ABC's afternoon children television program, "Play School".[September 2005] She was one of 12 actors who were offered exclusive two-year contracts by the Sydney Theatre Company to be known as the Actors Company. The other actors also offered contracts are: Marta Dusseldorp, John Gaden, Pamela Rabe, Peter Carroll, Dan Spielman, Brandon Burke, Eden Falk, Marco Chiappi and Hayley McElhinney.