Leah Purcell

Acting

Leah Purcell

Born

1970-08-14 (56)

Place of birth

Murgon, Queensland, Australia

Known for

Acting

Credits

41 titles

Known for

McLeod's Daughters poster
7.3

When Jack McLeod passes away, his two daughters inherit Drovers Run, a vast cattle ranch in the Australian outback. Ultimately, Tess and Claire decide to run the ranch together, with their housekeeper, Meg, her teenage daughter, Jodi, and a local girl, Becky. Their lives are hard and the obstacles many, but the rewards are every bit as grand as the wild open land they've inherited.

McLeod's Daughters

2001

Water Rats poster
6.2

Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001.

Water Rats

1996

The Lost World poster
7.3

Early 20th-century adventurers find themselves fighting for survival after their hot-air balloon crashes into a remote part of the Amazon, stranding them on a prehistoric plateau.

The Lost World

1999

Wentworth poster
8.0

Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.

Wentworth

2013

Police Rescue poster
6.7

Police Rescue was an Australian television series The series dealt with the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad based in Sydney and their work attending to various incidents from road accidents to train crashes.

Police Rescue

1991

BeastMaster poster
6.4

BeastMaster chronicles the adventures of Dar, the last surviving male of the storied Sula tribe, who is blessed with the ability to communicate telepathically with the animals of his ancient world. Also endowed with the strength, courage and fighting skills of a great warrior, he uses his gifts to defend all living creatures oppressed by the forces of evil.

BeastMaster

1999

Film credits

2020s · 7 titles

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson poster
5.9

In 1893, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson and her children struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian landscape after her husband left to go droving sheep in the high country. One day, she finds a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yakada wounded on her property. As an unlikely bond begins to form between them he reveals secrets about her true identity. Realizing Molly’s husband is actually missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff starts being suspicious and sends his constable to investigate.

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

2022

Shayda poster
6.8

Shayda, a young Iranian woman living in Australia, finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz, she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.

Shayda

2023

Wentworth: Behind the Bars poster
NR

Before the launch of Wentworth's highly anticipated eighth season on Fox Showcase, let's take a journey back through seven seasons of gripping, unstoppable drama.

Wentworth: Behind the Bars

2020

Zac Power poster
NR

Zac Power’s position as the top teenage spy is compromised after a brilliant new agent arrives. When his recklessness allows an ostentatious supervillain to steal a high-tech weapon, Zac is forced to confront his own flaws and team up with his rival.

Zac Power

2027

No artwork available
NR

Narrated by Pamela Rabe, go behind the bars of the emotional goodbye and how Wentworth effected the cast in their careers and life with stories from the celebrated Wentworth cast.

Wentworth: Unlocked

2021

No artwork available
NR

The official inside story from the cast and exclusive untold secrets from one of the most beloved Australian series in television history.

Wentworth Behind the Bars 3: A Look at the Final Season

2020

Looking Black poster
NR

Looking Black explores the impact of Indigenous storytelling at the ABC, and how it has created deep and honest conversations about the experience of First Nations journalists, storytellers, and presenters.

Looking Black

2022

2010s · 4 titles

My Mistress poster
5.2

After the death of his father, a 16-year-old boy struggles with anger and instability, distancing himself from his mother. His search for escape leads him to a lonely dominatrix living nearby, a woman accustomed to giving and controlling pain. Drawn to her world, he seeks both solace and love, while she finds herself pulled into a bond that neither expected but both need.

My Mistress

2014

David Stratton: A Cinematic Life poster
4.6

A compelling personal journey with David Stratton, as he relates the fascinating development of our cinema history. David guides us from his boyhood cinema experience of Australia in England, where he saw the first images of this strange and exotic landscape via the medium of film, to his migration to Australia as a ‘ten pound pom’ in 1963 and onto his present day reflections on the iconic themes that run through our cinematic legacy. All of this reflects a passionate engagement in a uniquely Australian medium. Parallel and at the heart of the series is the story of an industry whose growing pains David has witnessed over a lifetime. Alongside David, the protagonists of this history are the giants of Australian cinema – both behind the camera and in front of it.

David Stratton: A Cinematic Life

2017

Last Cab to Darwin poster
6.8

Rex is a loner, and when he's told he doesn't have long to live, he embarks on an epic drive through the Australian outback from Broken Hill to Darwin to die on his own terms; but his journey reveals to him that before you can end your life, you have to live it, and to live it, you've got to share it.

Last Cab to Darwin

2015

Mary: The Making of a Princess poster
4.3

This is the story of a fateful encounter and the life-changing choices that led to one of Australia's and the world's most recognisable and romantic love stories.

Mary: The Making of a Princess

2015

2000s · 7 titles

The Proposition poster
7.0

In 1880s Australia, a lawman offers renegade Charlie Burns a difficult choice. In order to save his younger brother from the gallows, Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother, who is wanted for rape and murder. Venturing into one of the Outback's most inhospitable regions, Charlie faces a terrible moral dilemma that can end only in violence.

The Proposition

2005

Lantana poster
6.7

Plagued with grief over the murder of her daughter, Valerie Somers suspects that her husband John is cheating on her. When Valerie disappears, Detective Leon Zat attempts to solve the mystery of her absence. A complex web of love, sex and deceit emerges -- drawing in four related couples whose various partners are distrustful and suspicious about each other's involvement.

Lantana

2001

Jindabyne poster
5.4

Outside the Australian town of Jindabyne, local man Stuart Kane is on a fishing trip with friends when they discover the body of a murdered girl.

Jindabyne

2006

Somersault poster
6.3

Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a relationship with him and tries to find something resembling a normal home life. Heidi makes small strides by getting a job and finding a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe must overcome more than its share of hurdles.

Somersault

2004

Tomorrow poster
5.0

Kirsten is a 14 year old girl who lives in an isolated Australian country town. Laura is a businesswoman on her way to Brisbane. When their journeys coincide Kirsten and Laura make a connection that runs deeper than their differences.

Tomorrow

2009

No artwork available
9.0

An unsolved crime, a retiring cop and a dying crim determined not to take his regrets to the grave.

Lennie Cahill Shoots Through

2003

No artwork available
7.0

Performer and writer Leah Purcell talks with five dynamic Indigenous women - Rosanna Angus, Kathryn Hay, Deborah Mailman, Cilla Malone and Tammy Williams - about what it means to be Aboriginal in Australia today. In a series of individual interviews and at one lively dinner party, the women share their experiences and opinions with extraordinary candour. The result is a passionate and challenging exploration of black identity and a celebration of five very different lives.

Black Chicks Talking

2002

Series credits

McLeod's Daughters poster
7.3

When Jack McLeod passes away, his two daughters inherit Drovers Run, a vast cattle ranch in the Australian outback. Ultimately, Tess and Claire decide to run the ranch together, with their housekeeper, Meg, her teenage daughter, Jodi, and a local girl, Becky. Their lives are hard and the obstacles many, but the rewards are every bit as grand as the wild open land they've inherited.

McLeod's Daughters

2001

Water Rats poster
6.2

Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001.

Water Rats

1996

The Lost World poster
7.3

Early 20th-century adventurers find themselves fighting for survival after their hot-air balloon crashes into a remote part of the Amazon, stranding them on a prehistoric plateau.

The Lost World

1999

Wentworth poster
8.0

Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.

Wentworth

2013

Police Rescue poster
6.7

Police Rescue was an Australian television series The series dealt with the New South Wales Police Rescue Squad based in Sydney and their work attending to various incidents from road accidents to train crashes.

Police Rescue

1991

BeastMaster poster
6.4

BeastMaster chronicles the adventures of Dar, the last surviving male of the storied Sula tribe, who is blessed with the ability to communicate telepathically with the animals of his ancient world. Also endowed with the strength, courage and fighting skills of a great warrior, he uses his gifts to defend all living creatures oppressed by the forces of evil.

BeastMaster

1999

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart poster
7.6

After losing her parents in a mysterious fire, nine-year-old Alice Hart is raised by her grandmother June on a flower farm where she learns there are secrets within secrets. But years on, an unearthed betrayal sees Alice forced to face her past.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

2023

High Country poster
6.0

When detective Andrea 'Andie' Whitford is transferred to the Victorian High Country, she is thrust into a baffling mystery of five missing persons who have vanished into the wilderness. Through an edge-of-the-seat, high-stakes investigation, Andie uncovers a complex web involving murder, deceit and revenge.

High Country

2024

Love Child poster
5.3

The lives of staff at the fictional Kings Cross Hospital and the wild streets of Darlinghurst in the 1960s. Joan Miller is a smart and sophisticated midwife who returns home from London to take a job at the Kings Cross Hospital. Dr Patrick McNaughton is a charismatic head of obstetrics at Kings Cross Hospital. Frances Bolton is the tough matron who also controls the running of Stanton House, a home for unwed pregnant young women.

Love Child

2014

Janet King poster
6.9

Senior Prosecutor Janet King returns from maternity leave to confront a high-profile murder, and a conspiracy which will have shocking ramifications throughout the judicial system.

Janet King

2014

The Starter Wife poster
4.4

The events of one woman's life following her divorce after years of marriage to a Hollywood studio executive. Based on the best-selling novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer.

The Starter Wife

2007

Redfern Now poster
8.0

Six extraordinary stories one unmissable series. Redfern Now is the first drama series written, directed and produced by Indigenous Australians.

Redfern Now

2012

Anh's Brush with Fame poster
NR

Comedian Anh Do loves to paint portraits and loves getting to know people, this new series combines the two.

Anh's Brush with Fame

2016

Ghosts Australia poster
8.0

New lovebirds Kate and Sean are about to jump into the hellscape that is the inner-city rental market, until Kate inherits a huge mansion in the country. Moving in together for the first time the young couple are attempting domestic bliss, but unbeknown to them, the house is haunted by a collection of needy spirits who carked it in Ramshead Manor over the past 200 years.

Ghosts Australia

2025

Bad Cop, Bad Cop poster
8.0

Police officers Lilywhite and Knutt (the "bad cop, bad cop" of the title) are hopelessly incompetent. Lafever is their friend, a lawyer with a relaxed attitude to the goings-on. Police graft, corruption and brutality are satirised in a very dry comic fashion, and with a stream of matter-of-fact obscenities.

Bad Cop, Bad Cop

2002

House of Hancock poster
6.7

House of Hancock tells the epic true story of the Hancock dynasty and the bizarre love triangle that emerged between Lang, his daughter Gina, and his beautiful Filipina housekeeper Rose.

House of Hancock

2015

All My Friends Are Racist poster
NR

In a survival-of-the-fiercest, two twenty-something black millennials decide it's time to call the racists out. They think it could cause a revolution, instead it causes a downgrade in lifestyle.

All My Friends Are Racist

2021

No artwork available
9.0

Fallen Angels is an Australian television series, aired by the ABC in 1997. Twenty episodes were produced, portraying a community legal centre in Endeavour Park, a fictional western suburb of Sydney, and the interesting clients represented by its overworked lawyers.

Fallen Angels

1997

Behind the camera

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson poster
5.9

In 1893, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson and her children struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian landscape after her husband left to go droving sheep in the high country. One day, she finds a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yakada wounded on her property. As an unlikely bond begins to form between them he reveals secrets about her true identity. Realizing Molly’s husband is actually missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff starts being suspicious and sends his constable to investigate.

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

2022

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson poster
5.9

In 1893, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson and her children struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian landscape after her husband left to go droving sheep in the high country. One day, she finds a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yakada wounded on her property. As an unlikely bond begins to form between them he reveals secrets about her true identity. Realizing Molly’s husband is actually missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff starts being suspicious and sends his constable to investigate.

The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

2022

Here Out West poster
4.7

A baby is kidnapped from hospital by a desperate grandmother. Her flight sets off a chain of events that bring together complete strangers over the course of one day.

Here Out West

2022

No artwork available
7.0

Performer and writer Leah Purcell talks with five dynamic Indigenous women - Rosanna Angus, Kathryn Hay, Deborah Mailman, Cilla Malone and Tammy Williams - about what it means to be Aboriginal in Australia today. In a series of individual interviews and at one lively dinner party, the women share their experiences and opinions with extraordinary candour. The result is a passionate and challenging exploration of black identity and a celebration of five very different lives.

Black Chicks Talking

2002