Actress Rebecca Gibney

Although born and raised in New Zealand, Rebecca Gibney is a TV star in nearby Australia.

She started out as a model before breaking into television in New Zealand, eventually moving to Oz and starring in the children's show "Zoo Family," about a veterinarian and his family in residence at the zoo in Melbourne.  Ms. Gibney became a star as mechanic Emma Plimpton in "The Flying Doctors," a drama about the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, an airborne medical service that serves people in remote areas of the vast country.  Ms. Gibney appeared in that series from 1986 to 1991.

She also tried her hand at comedy, appearing in the early-nineties sitcom "All Together Now," about an aging rock star trying to keep his music career going while raising two children.   In 1994, Ms. Gibney retuned to drama as Dr. Jane Halifax, a forensic psychiatrist looking into the mental health of murder suspects and victims in "Halifax f.p.", a role she played for eight years.

Ms. Gibney spent the twenty-first century playing so many different roles in Australian television, she became as much an institution Down Under as Mary Tyler Moore (an earlier honoree on this blog) in the United States.  Americans know her best from "Packed to the Rafters," an Australian comedy/drama that eventually aired on PBS in the U.S.  Ms. Gibney played Julie Rafter, a family matriarch who has to deal with two of her three grown children having to move back home for financial or personal reasons, as well as her widowed father moving in as well when he enters a state of depression.  The role earned Ms. Gibney a Gold Logie Award (the Australian equivalent of an Emmy) for Most Popular Actress. The series ran from 2008 to 2013.

Ms. Gibney has won several other awards Down Under, too many to mention here.  And she's still popular.  She recently began a reprise of her role as Julie Rafter in a sequel series, "Back To the Rafters," which debuted in September 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.