Hello

I live and make art on unceded Kaurna Yerta in Tandanya (Adelaide, SA), and on various other colonised First Nations lands across So-Called Australia. I extend my respects to Indigenous Elders, Peoples, Ancestors, and Storytellers.

Always Was, Always Will Be, First Nations Land. Saying sorry and paying respects isn’t enough, please join me in paying the rent at www.paytherent.com

Jamila Main is a true slashie artist in the first five years of their practice. Jamila works predominantly as an Actor and Playwright, and additionally as a Disability Inclusion Consultant and Dramaturg. Currently Jamila works as a researcher with Back to Back Theatre amongst a busy year of writing and performing.

Since graduating from the Acting Program at Adelaide College of the Arts in 2018, Jamila has swiftly become a prolific and respected artist working across Tandanya/Adelaide, Gadigal land of the Eora Nation in Sydney, and lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm/Melbourne. Jamila is an active contributor to the contemporary creative landscape as an artist but also through sitting on the Advisory Panel for Australian Plays Transform, Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee, and mentoring emerging artists.

Jamila has starred in works across stage and screen, including the acclaimed Aleppo. A Portrait of Absence (Adelaide Festival, 2020), L’Hotel (Adelaide Cabaret Festival, 2021), Curiosity in Rough Draft #51 (Sydney Theatre Company, 2021); and is a regular at Vitalstatistix, including the development of Jamila’s show How Long Can This Last? with dramaturg Emma Valente, 2020; Set Piece (development) by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon, 2019; and as the Adhocracy Emerging Curator in 2019.

Other stage roles include Zero Feet Away (ActNow Theatre, 2017); Benched (FELTspace, 2021; Headspace Berri, 2021; SALA Festival, 2021; Midsumma Festival, 2022; Darlinghurst Theatre Company, 2022), and Butterfly Kicks (RUMPUS, 2021). Jamila has been writing and performing work for the stage, screen, and livestream since 2016, beginning with Geode commissioned by Michael Allen Productions while Jamila was completing their first year of acting training.

Jamila’s screen roles include Back to Back Theatre’s Shadow, the award-winning I’ll Accept (Mixed Mediums, 2017) and the experimental video work Cycles (Johanis Lyons-Reid, 2020); as well as various commercials and corporate training videos.

A commissioned writer for State Theatre Company of South Australia and ActNow Theatre’s Ruby award-winning Decameron 2.0, Jamila was also commissioned for the ground-breaking article On the Precipice: Theatre for the Isolated Audience (ArtsHub, 2020) and it’s follow up Why We Need Online Theatre After Lockdown (ArtsHub, 2021).

As a playwright Jamila has written eleven plays, and received awards from Griffin Theatre Company for How to Eat Rabbit and State Theatre Company SA for Immaculate and How to Eat Rabbit. Butterfly Kicks was a finalist in the Queer Playwriting Award (Midsumma Festival, 2020) and winner of the Queer Short Story Award (Feast Festival and Writers SA, 2018), with the opening monologue performed at national monologue festivals including the 2020 Sydney Mardi Gras. Jamila won the Queer Short Story Award for the second year in a row for Queer Utopia is on the Roof of a Westfield.

Jamila made their interstate debut as a Dramaturg working on Cat Piss by Jordyn Fulcher at Darlinghurst Theatre Company, and is mentored in writing for the stage and screen by Kate Mulvany.

Jamila has been Carclew Fellow and Artist-in-Residence, is currently a Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee and sits on the National Performer’s Committee at MEAA, a Disability Consultant and Educator, and a founding member and the Access Coordinator at RUMPUS Theatre.

Accessibility for audiences and artists, queer joy, and safe modes of working are all key components of Jamila’s practice.

Jamila is a queer, disabled, and chronically ill person and ambulatory wheelchair user.

Jamila is represented by Ann Peters at SA Casting.

“Jamila Main has a breathtaking ability of taking theatre and turning it into something completely unique and unexplored.“

Kate Mulvany

Training

Pay Me

Engage me as an actor for productions, developments, and readings across stage and screen.

Commission a play from me or license an existing play for performance.

Commission an opinion piece from me.

Pay me as a dramaturg to work on your script development through mentor sessions or creative developments.

Hire me as a consultant on your script development (stage and screen). I provide consultancy on access, inclusion and representation of disabled and chronically ill people, queer people, and nonbinary people.

Employ me to run workshops on disability awareness and inclusion, grantwriting, devising theatre, and playwriting.

Hire me as a speaker for panels and keynotes.

Employ me as a teaching artist with primary and high school students for after school programs or holiday workshops featuring drama games, devising shows, writing from your lived experience, rehearsing and performing plays. For tertiary students I also teach playwriting, devising, and grant writing.

Pay me to develop an access guide for your performance or event.

Pay me for mentorship sessions. Perfect for emerging performing artists and playwrights who are chronically ill and disabled and/or queer, or for artists wanting to move into live performance writing and/or performance.

Engage me as a host or MC at your event.

Sliding scale of pay rate available based on your level of funding and financial situation.

Get in touch at jamilaelizabeth15@gmail.com or use the form below