Lawrance, Debra

Debra Lawrance was born and raised in the rural outskirts of Melbourne and is the fourth of six children. She graduated from N.I.D.A. in 1977. Among her fellow students were Mel Gibson, Steve Bisley, Judy Davis and Robert Menzies. ’77 is still regarded as a vintage year….

Her work has been varied, with most of her credits being in every known Australian television series from “ The Sullivans” to “ Prisoner “. In 1980 she starred as Maggie Kelly in “The Last Outlaw”- Channel 7’s acclaimed mini-series about Ned Kelly. This was followed by several feature films including Sophia Turkiewisz’s,“Silver City”.

In 1984, Debra won the lead role in “The Fast Lane”, an A.B.C. T.V. comedy written by John Clarke and Andrew Knight. The show ran for 2 seasons and was a critical success. Debra was then fortunate, in 1987, to work with Tom Conti on “Two Brothers Running” and then 2 months later with Meryl Streep on Fred Schepisi’s, “Evil Angels”.

In 1988 she toured to London with an Aboriginal theatre company in a production of “No Sugar”, and then, after further travels returned home to star in “Home and Away” (her role of “Pippa” lasted for 8 years.) During her time on “Home And Away” Debra met Dennis Coard, who was playing her on-screen husband; a year after they married on-screen, they tied the knot off-screen as well! And when Debra fell pregnant, Pippa was suddenly expecting too!…

Debra’s recent work includes playing Reverend Grace, the wife of Sergeant Tom Croydon, on “Blue Heelers” and the role of Vi in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s acclaimed production of “The Memory of Water”. She has also been involved in the reading of “Under Mulga Wood” at Montsalvat and the world premier of “Quilting the Armour”, a play about the Kelly women, which was performed at Glenrowan in 2005, to mark the 125th anniversary of the siege. The play then had a season at the Old Melbourne Gaol in November of 2006. Debra plays the role of Ellen Kelly, Ned’s remarkable mum. In 2007 Debra appeared in the award winning film “ The Jammed “.

Debra is now also putting her training, and thirty years of performance experience, to use as a senior tutor in the NIDA Corporate Performance programme… a role she finds enormously satisfying and fulfilling.

In the meantime, Debra enjoys rural life on the outskirts of Melbourne with Dennis and their two beautiful children, Grace (15) and William (8). A devout “foodie”, she relaxes by cooking, reading about cooking and thinking about cooking…. although, she has also been known to disappear for days inside a “diabolical” Sudoku puzzle…..