About Steven Oliver
Born in Cloncurry, Steven Oliver is a descendant of the Kukuyalanji, Waanyi, Gangalidda, Woppaburra, Bundjalung and Biripi peoples.
He trained as a dancer, actor and singer in the Aboriginal Music Theatre Training Program and at WAAPA. He is also a performance poet.
In 2018, his play From Darkness Whence We Came was produced for the National Playwrighting Festival. In May 2018, he was a featured writer at the Northern Territory Writers' Festival
He took on the role of Assistant Artistic Director with the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts in Brisbane, and has worked with companies such as Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre, Kooemba Jdarra Theatre, La Boite Theatre, JUTE Theatre Company, Kite Theatre and the Queensland Arts Council.
He has had showings of his musical Black Queen Black King as part of Queensland Theatre Company’s Creative Development Series in Association with Playlab and also at the Brisbane Powerhouse for their World Theatre Festival Program.
He has been a Queensland state finalist twice in Brisbane and national finalist for the Australian Poetry Slam at the Sydney Opera House. He has also had his play Proppa Solid (originally Proper Solid) produced by JUTE Theatre Company in 2014 that toured Queensland in 2016 and was also published by Playlab. He is also a writer, actor and was associate producer for ABC’s Logie nominated sketch show Black Comedy.
He recently wrote and hosted FABOROGINAL a deadly art game show that is based on the question. How well do you know your art? He is joined by two teams of courageous Indigenous celebrity contestants battling it out to answer our tricky art Aboriginal art questions.
Stephen’s songs speak of being Indigenous in Australia. Speaking of trolling on Facebook on social media, he observed “the thing about racism is that it teaches you how to behave”.
When he recalls his struggle with depression, he connects it to a story about a boy bullied for being effeminate, calling for a world where such a boy would “not just dance to sadness, but just dance”.
