Australian actress, writer and activist Magda Szubanski was BOTD in 1961. Born in Liverpool, her family emigrated to Australia when she was a child. She studied at the University of Melbourne, where she began performing sketch comedy, and was talent-spotted by television producers. She co-wrote and performed in sketch comedy series The D-Generation and Fast Forward, creating a gallery of loveable grotesques. She gained cult status in fly-on-the-wall TV comedy Kath & Kim, playing Kim’s hapless sidekick Sharon Strzelecki. Though Sharon was straight (her crush on cricketer Shane Warne eventually blossomed into love and marriage), Szubanski cheerfully leaned into Sharon’s dyke aesthetic, pudding bowl haircut and naive interest in celebrity lesbians Jane Lynch and Penny Wong. Szubanski also appeared in the successful films Babe and Babe: Pig in the City and voice-acted in Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. In the 2000s, she played male roles in stage revivals of the musicals The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Guys and Dolls. Her recent projects include the 2022 TV dramedy series After the Verdict, playing a lesbian involved in a jury trial, and a cameo as God in the TV film God’s Favourite Idiot. She came out as gay in 2012 and was a vocal supporter of Australia’s gay marriage campaign. Her 2015 memoir Reckoning chronicled her struggles to accept her sexuality and her family’s experiences as Holocaust survivors.