When you think of TV and film in ’90s Australia, there’s a good chance Sophie Lee’s face is one that pops into your mind.
During that time, she was something of an ‘It girl’, appearing in many of our country’s most enduring on-screen productions.
For many, however, Lee will always be remembered as host of The Bugs Bunny Show, which aired on Nine from 1990 to 1992.
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The show well and truly put her on the pop culture radar, as did her role on The Flying Doctors from 1991.
What you might not remember, however, is that around this time she was also part of a pop group called Freaked Out Flower Children, playing saxophone and providing vocals.
One of Lee’s most memorable performances came in 1994, when she starred as mean girl Tania Degano in Muriel’s Wedding.
She clearly relished the role and was a worthy on-screen adversary for Toni Collette.
Who could forget the scene where Tania and her cronies cruelly dump Muriel over cocktails, then later transform into her simpering bridesmaids when Muriel becomes a local celebrity with a televised wedding?
Another of Lee’s iconic roles was as hairdresser Tracey Kerrigan in 1997’s The Castle.
The only daughter of Darryl and Sal Kerrigan (Michael Caton and Anne Tenney), some of her memorable scenes included her appearance on The Price is Right and her wedding to Con Petropoulos (Eric Bana).
True fans also know she’s responsible for delivering the quote “no, Microwave Jenny”.
Lee’s performance in The Castle landed her an AFI Award nomination.
She also starred in the films He Died With A Felafel in his Hand, Bootmen and Holy Smoke and in the hit series Dance Academy. She’s continued TV presenting, too, and has also taken her acting talents to the stage.
While she’s an icon of Australia’s acting world, Lee’s career hasn’t been limited to the screen or stage.
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She’s also an author, having written three books – Alice in La La Land, plus two books for younger readers, Edie Amelia and the Monkey Shoe Mystery and Edie Amelia and the Runcible River Fever – and has been a columnist.
Explaining her pivot from acting to writing on her blog, Lee said she’d been “tooling short stories from a young age”, and had an early passion for the written word that was unexpectedly “sidelined” by her love for the theatrical arts.
The Castle cast: Then and now
“After performing for many years on the big and small screens and on the stage, I finally reached an impasse. I’d had a shocking year and I discovered my solace was once again in writing,” she noted.
“I felt ready for a big change, time to be author of my own work rather than a bit player in someone else’s.”
She enrolled for a creative writing degree at university, describing it as an “unforgettable experience”.
“I’ll never forget the elation I experienced on completing my crucial first short story, and the pride and satisfaction in knowing that it was all mine, properly structured and executed with a beginning, a middle and an end,” she said.
“I resolved then that I would continue to write.”
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