Maude Davey (born 1963) is an Australian actress, director, and screenwriter who has been active in the national stage, television and cinema of Australia since the 1980s.
Career Davey was born in 1963 in Perth, Western Australia, and has a twin sister named Annie, who is also an actress. The family relocated to Melbourne, and the Davey sisters grew up there. Maude went on to develop a thirty-year-long career in the city of Melbourne and elsewhere in Australia. She trained in acting at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and graduated in 1985.
After her career at the VCA, Davey began acting on stage and working with local figures and groups involved with musical theatre and burlesque plays. She later directed her own shows, including Fish! For the Rollercoaster Ensemble (2017) and Mongrel (2018). In the 1990s, Davey worked with her sister and artist and director David Pledger in Pledger's show Not Yet It’s Difficult. In 2015, the Davey sisters launched their neo-burlesque and vaudeville show Retro Futurismus, which toured several states of Australia.
Between 1999 and 2002, Davey was part of the directorate of HotHouse Theatre, where she worked on a production with Chris Thompson and Wayne Hope. She ran the companies Vital Statistics from 2002 until 2007, and later the Melbourne Workers Theatre. In 2018, Davey took part in the theatre adaptation of the 2011 film Melancholia of Lars von Trier. The play was written by playwright Declan Greene and featured at Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne.
Davey's television works include minor roles in Janus (1994–1995) and Summer Heights High (2007), Offspring (2011–2014), The Newsreader (2021–2025), and more recently, The Family Next Door (2025).
In cinema, Davey's performances include Only the Brave (1994), Noise (2007), My Year Without Sex (2009), The Dry (2020), and Spit (2025).
In 2026, Davey was cast for the international horror production Evil Dead Burn, where she portrays an elderly lady of much older age than hers, for which she had to go through five or six hours of makeup to look like the 90-year-old character. Director Sébastien Vaniček stated in an interview that Davey was cast because an actually elderly lady would not have been able to perform the movements that the script required for the character.
Selected roles Television Year Title Role 1992 The Flying Doctors Miss Cameron 1994 Blue Heelers Jean Blakely 1994–1995 Janus Leslie Keilor 2002 MDA Dr. Georgia Black 2003 BackBerner Shopper 2007 Summer Heights High Jan Palmer 2009–2012 Tangle Agatha 2010 Rush Donna 2011 The Slap Tasha 2011–2014 Offspring Dr. Nadine Samir 2013–2014 The Doctor Blake Mysteries Mrs Ashford 2017 The Leftovers Hildy 2019 Bad Mothers Magistrate Utopia Joan 2023 Strife Carmen 2021–2023 Five Bedrooms Pat 2021–2025 The Newsreader Val Jennings 2025 The Family Next Door Helen Gillespie Apple Cider Vinegar Margaret
Film Year Title Role 1994 Only the Brave Kate The Sewing Room Grace 1999 Strange Fits of Passion Woman in Gay Bookshop 2007 Noise Constable Rhonda Harris 2009 My Year Without Sex Agatha Broken Hill Social worker Dinnattee 2017 Lazybones Matilda 2018 The Five Provocations 30 Minutes of Danger The Technician 2019 Ride Like a Girl Therapist 2020 The Dry Helen 2025 Spit Jane Holland 2026 Evil Dead Burn Polly Price
Stage Year Title Role Notes 1992 Macbeth Lady Macbeth 1994 In the Service of Beauty Directed by Daniel Schlusser, based on work by writer Sam Sejavka 1995 Romeo & Juliet Mercutio 1998 Infectiou$ Directed by Melanie Beddie 2014 My Life in Boxes, Gravity Dolls Directed 2015 Retro Futurismus Director along with her sister Anni, Anna Lumb, and Gabi Barton. Vaudeville and post-burlesque show I am not a Unicorn Original by Emma J. Hawkins 2016 Oh! What a Lovely War, Mate! Directed. Play written by Nick Enright, who inspired himself in Joan Littlewood Oh, What a Lovely War! 2017 Fish! For the Rollercoaster Ensemble Director 2018 Mongrel Director Melancholia Gaby Stage adaptation of the 2011 film Melancholia
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