Aaron Pedersen

Aaron Pedersen's Biography

A popular profile on Australian screens, indigenous Alice Springs born Aaron Pedersen has achieved a lot in his television career. Aaron Pedersen transitioned into acting, after initially training as a journalist at the ABC. Through his work on Wildside, Water Rats, MDA, Territorians, Grassroots, Black Jack, East West 101 and The Secret Life of Us, Aaron has been able to champion the changing representation of Indigenous people in Australia. More recently, he starred in the SBS mini-series, The Circuit, and the Seven Network series, City Homicide.

In 2012, Aaron appeared opposite Guy Pearce in the ABC telemovies, Jack Irish: Bad Debts and Jack Irish: Black Tide, Suri Krishnamma’s feature Bad Karma with Ray Liotta and Dominic Purcell and Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road alongside Hugo Weaving.

His film credits include Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, Dead Heart, Saturday Night, Grange, Unfinished Business, Mirror Images, and Dark Love Story for which he received a Melbourne Underground Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

Aaron’s short documentary, My Brother Vinnie is a heartfelt piece that explores Aaron’s relationship with his brother Vincent who has a mild intellectual disability and cerebral palsy. The film won the Best Short Documentary award at the Melbourne International Film Festival, was nominated for an IF Award for Best Short Documentary and Aaron received a Deadly Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Aaron received a Deadly Award nomination for Male Actor of the Year in 2007, and won the award in 2003 and 2011. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Bob Maza Fellowship.

Aaron is an Arrernte/Arabana descendant from Alice Springs. He is noted in his community as an outspoken and passionate advocate for cultural values. He participated in a play reading of Conversations with the Dead, addressed the United Nations in New York and spoke at the Art Gallery of NSW about the journey of an Indigenous artist working in Australia.

His MC duties include the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival, Carers Australian Gala Dinner, Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Education Awards, Indigenous Literacy Education Forum and the NSW Land Council 25th Anniversary Silver Ball. He has also been the guest speaker at the Jobs Australia Conference and Careers Week Victoria, keynote speaker at the 2005 Red Cross Youth Delegation Week in Melbourne and has been the Host of the Black Nite Film Festival since 2009, co-host of the 2011 Deadly Awards and the NITV live broadcast of 2012 Yalukit Willam Ngargee Festival.