fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Aaron Pedersen is an Aboriginal Australian television and film actor. He is known for many film and television roles, in particular as Detective Jay Swan in the film Mystery Road, its sequel Goldstone, and spin-off television series. He has been nominated for many and won several acting awards, including the 2021 AACTA Award for International Award for Best Actor in a Series.

Aaron Pedersen
Pedersen at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival
Born	Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1994-present

Early life

Pedersen, who is of Arrernte and Arabana descent, was born and grew up in Alice Springs,[1] one of eight children. He and his seven siblings grew up in foster homes away from their alcoholic mother,[2] Margaret,[3] and experienced much family violence in the home.[4] From an early age, he looked after his brother, Vinnie, who has cerebral palsy and a mild intellectual disability.[3]

In the early 1990s, Pedersen underwent a cadetship at the ABC in Melbourne, and worked as a journalist and presenter. He was a host for the TV series Blackout.[1]

Career

His acting career began in 1994, when he starred in the miniseries Heartland and was voted Bachelor of the Year by Cleo magazine.[5]^{[better source needed]} He came to notice in 1995 as co-host of Gladiators Australia, an Australian game show.^{[citation needed]}

Pedersen's first major acting role was as lawyer Vince Cellini in Wildside in 1997. In 1999, he played Detective Senior Constable Michael Reilly in Water Rats, and took a major role in The Secret Life of Us (2005).[1]

Since 2007, he had the leading role in SBS's drama series The Circuit, and from 2007 to 2011 he appeared in Channel Seven's drama City Homicide.^{[citation needed]} He appeared as Cam Delray in ABC Television's Jack Irish series, beginning in 2012 and running for several seasons.[1]

Pedersen took the role of Detective Jay Swan in Mystery Road (2013), a role he reprised in its sequel film Goldstone (2016), and its spin-off television series (2018-2020).[6][1]

He played war veteran Frank Gibbs in A Place to Call Home (2017-2018) and Tom Campbell in Total Control (2019).^{[citation needed]} In 2021 he was the presenter for an ABC Television documentary series Australia Remastered: Nature's Great Divide. In the same year he featured as a presenter with the writer Holly Ringland in an 8-episode documentary series on ABC Television called Back to Nature.[7]

Recognition

In 2007 Pedersen was the recipient of the Bob Maza Fellowship, which recognises emerging acting talent and support professional development for Indigenous actors.[8]

Awards

Pedersen has been nominated for many and won several awards.[9]

He won the Best Actor award at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival for Darklovestory (2006).[10]

My Brother Vinnie (2006) won the Best Short Documentary award at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was nominated for an IF Award for Best Short Documentary. Pedersen was also nominated for a Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film.[11]

Pedersen won a Deadly Award nomination for Male Actor of the Year in 2003 and 2011, and was nominated for it in 2007.[11]

In 2013 he was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, for his role in the film Mystery Road.[10]

After being nominated several times over the years for AFI and AACTA Awards, in 2021 he won the AACTA International Award for Best Actor in a Series, for his role in Mystery Road.[12][13]

Other roles

Pedersen speaks at schools and prisons, and is concerned at the rate of incarceration of Indigenous Australians, seeing parallels with the early history of Australia, being founded as a penal colony; the link between poverty and crime.[1] Other speaking roles include emceeing various events, including the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival, and has hosted Black Nite Film Festival since 2009. He was co-host of the 2011 Deadly Awards, and has undertaken many other public speaking engagements.[11]

Personal life

Pedersen looked out for his younger brother Vinnie, who has cerebral palsy and mild intellectual disabilities, on and off since he was a child.[3] In 1997, when Aaron was following his career as an actor in Sydney, their grandmother, who had been helping to care for Vinnie in Alice Springs, died. There were no services available nor other family support, so Aaron took on the role as full-time carer and Vinnie joined him in Sydney. After things got difficult for Aaron, his de facto mother-in-law, Mum Frances, stepped in and Vinnie moved in with her.[3]

Vinnie accompanies Aaron during his filming.[14] The short documentary film My Brother Vinnie (2006), written by Pedersen, directed by Steven McGregor, and shot by Warwick Thornton (both friends), was selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival and Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival.[15][3][16]

Pedersen's partner in life is Sarah Bond. He says that caring for Vinnie means that there is no space in their lives for children. He loves working with wood, and has a "secret desire to be a tradie".[1]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Dead Heart	Tony
2000	Saturday Night	Mac
2004	Queen of Hearts
	Floodhouse		uncredited
2006	Darklovestory	Gil
2012	Bad Karma	Bear
2013	Mystery Road	Jay Swan
	The Darkside
2014	The Fear of Darkness	Dr. Nicholas Trengrove
2015	Spear	Suicide Man
2016	Killing Ground	German
	Goldstone	Jay Swan	Sequel to Mystery Road
2017	1%	Sugar	also known as "Outlaw"
2019	Dirt Music	Beaver
2020	High Ground	Walter
2021	Back to the Outback	Clive the Dung Beetle	Voice

Television

Year	TV show/TV movie	Role	Notes
1994	Heartland	Clarrie Carmichael	TV mini-series
1995	Australian Gladiators	Self	Host - Series 1
1996	The Territorians	Tom Daly	TV movie
	Crocadoo	Billy
1997–1999	Wildside	Vince Cellini	Regular – 50 episodes
1999–2001	Water Rats	Det Snr Constable Michael Reilly	Regular – 86 episodes
2002-03	MDA	Dr. Tony McKinnon	23 episodes
2003	Grass Roots	Joe Ventimiglia	2 episodes: Investigation / Garbage
2005	The Secret Life of Us	Corey Mailins	9 episodes
	Grange	Sam	TV movie
	A Very Barry Christmas	Warrun (voice only)	television movie
2006	Blackjack: Dead Memory	Greg	TV movie
2007	East West 101	Adam King	episode "Death at the Station"
	Too Late	Ben	TV short
2007–2010	The Circuit	Drew Ellis	Regular – 12 episodes Logie nominee in 2009 for the 'Most Outstanding Actor' award
2007–2011	City Homicide	Duncan Freeman	Regular – 84 episodes
2008	Double Trouble	Kelton	Regular – 13 episodes
2012	Jack Irish	Cam Delray	TV movies: Black Tide Bad Debts
2014	The Code	Tim Simons	6 episodes
	Jack Irish	Cam Delray	TV movie – Dead Point
2016-2021	Jack Irish	Cam Delray	Regular - 16 episodes
2016	It's a Date	Matt	episode "Should You re-connect with an Old Flame?"
2017	A Place to Call Home	Frank Gibbs	Season 5
	Blue Murder: Killer Cop	Joe Kensell	TV mini-series
2018–	Mystery Road	Jay Swan	Regular – 12 episodes, Sequel to Mystery Road (2013) and Goldstone
2019	Total Control	Tom Campbell Jnr	Regular cast
2020	The Gloaming	Lewis Grimshaw	Regular - 8 episodes
2021	Back to Nature	Self	Host

Short film

Year	Title	Role	Duration
2002	Mimi	Jonathan	13 minutes
2016	Under Skin In Blood	Henry	13 minutes
2017	Water	Caleb	13 minutes

References

Further reading

• "Aaron Pedersen is a different kind of archetypal leading man" by Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times, 13 October 2020

External links

• Aaron Pedersen at IMDb

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