Biography
Mercia Deane-Johns was born in Melbourne Australia, the seventh child, of highly creative parents. She began acting when she was 12. Her mother was a concert pianist and her father, a New Zealander, a beautiful singer, the whole family learned musical instruments. She studied classical singing at the London College of Music and has sung in many jazz bands. She toured the world with The Celibate Rifles in 1989. She is also a writer and was a columnist for Australian Playboy in the '80s. She has played a variety of characters in television, film, and theatre for the past forty years, and is best known for her versatility and humour on Australian screens. She has played Russian Immigrants, Bikie chicks, Jewish girls, Italian mammas, the wild and whacky Sharon on Chances, activists, barmaids, Irish school girls, and many more. She has worked with Judy Davis, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, Nicole Kidman, Michael Caton, Deborah Kennedy, Julia Blake. She is a passionate voice for the Indigenous Nations of Australia, the environment, and civil rights. She has one daughter, Natasha.
