Later this year, you'll see Kiruna starring in 'The Serpent Queen' for Starz.
During the lockdown Kiruna was busy winning the Kidscreen Award for Best On-Air Host, achieving international recognition for her work as a presenter on ABC’s ‘Play School’, and she featured in a couple of episodes of ‘Brassic’ for Sky TV.
Kiruna was one of the original cast of the Olivier Award-winning production of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, starring James McAvoy, for The Jamie Lloyd Company, and she starred in the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of ‘Them’.
You will also recognise Kiruna from ‘The New Pope’ (Dir. Paolo Sorrentino), ‘Deception’/’The Best Offer’ (Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore), ‘Judy and Punch’ (Mirrah Foulkes), ‘Moulin Rouge’ (Baz Luhrmann), ‘Life’s Too Short’ (Ricky Gervais), the BBC’s ‘Father Brown, ‘Holby City’, ‘All The Small Things/Heart and Soul’ and ‘EastEnders’, and Channel 4’s ‘Cast-offs’.
Kiruna has been performing across the UK in theatre in both classic and contemporary plays for over 10 years. She has starred as Anna in the Olivier-Award-nominated production ‘The Government Inspector' for Ramps on the Moon, and performed at the National Theatre in London three times, in ‘Everyman’, directed by Rufus Norris, written by Carol Ann Duffy, movement by Javier De Frutos, and with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role, Tim Crouch's ‘An Oak Tree' and Richard Bean's 'Great Britain', which marked her West End debut.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Kiruna began her interest in the arts as a young dancer, training at Ultimate Dance/Beryl Ellis Studios. However, it was at the University of New South Wales, while studying a BA (Media and communications) majoring in Film and Theatre, that Kiruna found herself as a performer. Meeting open minded tutors and fellow collaborators, Kiruna had a place to practice, devise and make work.
In 1999, while in her first year at university, Kiruna made her professional acting début in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. She then travelled to England to study Shakespearean and Jacobean Theatre over the summer at LAMDA.
Years of acting internationally in Theatre, Film and Television have followed. Kiruna occasionally returns to contemporary dance and tap dance. In addition to working with some of the world’s leading Directors, Kiruna has also worked with some the world's leading dance innovators, Caroline Bowditch, Marc Brew, Sue Healey, John 'cha cha' O'Connell, Shaun Parker and Christina Tingskog.
Kiruna says, "'Whilst my work is heavily influenced by my own experiences of dwarfism, disability, gender, sexuality... etc... No singular discourse defines my identity or my work."
Theatre
‘Hamlet’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ (Bolton Octagon Theatre), ‘The Rover’ (Belvoir Street), ‘The Government Inspector’ (Birmingham Rep/Ramps on the Moon). ‘Everyman’ and ‘An Oak Tree’ (National Theatre); ‘Great Britain’ (National Theatre/Haymarket Theatre), ‘Whiter Than Snow’ (Birmingham Rep/Graeae Theatre Co.); ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ (Red Earth Theatre); ‘Pirate & Parrot’ (A Little Commitment/Red Earth Theatre); ‘Peeling’ (Forest Forge), ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (Bolton Octagon); ‘Grace’(Quarantine); ‘For All The Wrong Reasons’ (Contact Theatre); King Lear (Round Earth Theatre); ‘The Maids’ (Atypical Theatre); ‘Macbeth’ (Sydney Theatre Company)
Film
Giuseppe Tornatore's film, 'Deception (aka The Best Offer)', alongside Geoffrey Rush and Baz Luhrmann’s 'Moulin Rouge'.
Television
Panellist for the ABC’s ‘Q & A’, Presenter on ABC’s ‘Play School’, Featured in Australian Story ‘All the Worlds a Stage’, Ricky Gervais' 'Life's Too Short', the BBC's, 'Father Brown', 'Holby City', 'All The Small Things' and 'EastEnders' and Channel 4's, 'Cast-offs'.