Mark Coles Smith (born 1987), also known as Kalaji, is an Aboriginal Australian (Nyikina) actor of stage and screen, sound designer, field recordist, writer and composer. Smith is known for his roles in the feature films Last Cab to Darwin (2015), Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), and Occupation: Rainfall (2020), as well as the television series Mystery Road: Origin (2022), and the Canadian series Hard Rock Medical (2013–18).
In 2023 he became the first Indigenous Australian actor to be nominated for a Gold Logie and won Best Actor in a Series in both the AACTA International Awards as well as the domestic AACTA Awards for his role in Mystery Road: Origin.
Early life and education Coles Smith was born in 1987 in Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia, and grew up on a cattle station on the Fitzroy River, two hours' drive east of Broome, in the Kimberley region of the state. Through his father’s family, he also has German, Polish, English and Scottish ancestry, while on his maternal side, he has Indonesian heritage alongside Nyikina roots. His grandfather was a pearl diver, and Coles Smith has said that his family were all very hardworking.
His parents separated when he was young, and he travelled around the country (including at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales; and in Brisbane, Perth, and Broome) with his mother, who was an academic who lectured in Indigenous mental health. He did not reconnect with his father, who ran art projects in remote communities, until he was around 10 or 11 years old. He felt an instant rapport and familiarity with his father, whom he described as possessing a kind of "German eccentricity".
He made his debut in the Network Ten children's TV show Ocean Star at the age of 14 after being taken to an open audition by his aunt.
In 2007, Coles Smith received the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development's Yvonne Cohen Award. He earned a certificate from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Aboriginal Theatre, a course offered only once in Broome, in which eight students attended classes for six months. He later said that most of his training came from working with experienced actors, such as Lisa Flanagan.
Career Coles Smith has worked in acting, sound design, field recording, writing, and composing music.
Film and television After filming his role in The Gods of Wheat Street in 2014, Coles Smith was cast in an episode of American sitcom Modern Family, playing a tour guide called Koora in an episode filmed in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
Coles Smith won critical acclaim for his performance as Tilly in Last Cab to Darwin, and was awarded with FCCA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2015.
In 2021, Coles Smith was cast in Mystery Road: Origin, a prequel to the original two series. In the prequel, Coles Smith played a younger version of detective Jay Swan, a role originated by Aaron Pedersen.
Following Chris Brown's defection from Network 10 to the Seven Network in 2023, Coles Smith succeeded Brown as the narrator of The Dog House Australia.
Coles Smith features as narrator and interviewer in the documentary Keeping Hope, directed by Tyson Mowarin, which examines the high rates of suicide in Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2023, ahead of its airing on NITV and SBS Television. In the film, Coles Smith opens up about his own and his family's experiences with the impact of suicide of close friends and family members. Steve Dow of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars.
In 2023, Coles Smith became the first Indigenous Australian actor ever to be nominated for a Gold Logie. He also received nominations for the Logie Award for Most Popular Actor and the industry-voted Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor for his role on Mystery Road: Origin. He was one of three identities from ABC TV nominated for the Gold Logie, along with Leigh Sales and Shaun Micallef, with Coles Smith crediting the latter with helping him draw inspiration from the "Curiosity Cul-de-sac" parodies on Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell for his role on Mystery Road: Origin. On 21 November 2024, it was announced that ABC had ordered a second series of Mystery Road: Origin, with Coles Smith to reprise the role of Jay Swan.
In 2025 Coles Smith narrated the ABC TV nature series "The Kimberley".
Stage acting Coles Smith has performed in several stage plays. He gave his first stage performance as a child, Crabbing at High Tide, presented as part of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2005.
His 2016 performance in The Drover's Wife at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney earned him the Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play in 2017.
Coles Smith played a leading role opposite Jack Charles in ILBIJERRI Theatre Company's Black Ties, first performed for the Sydney Festival in January 2020, then touring to Perth, Melbourne, and then Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand in February and March of that year.
Music Coles Smith was the sound designer for the play Which Way Home at the Belvoir, produced by ILBIJERRI as part of the Sydney Festival and directed by Rachael Maza Long.
Under the stage name Kalaji (the Nyikina word for "whirlwind"), Coles Smith gave his first musical/multimedia performance, named "Night River", at the Yirramboi arts festival in Melbourne in 2019. The work explored Nyikina country and the Mardoowarra (aka Martuwarra, or Fitzroy River area).
In December 2021, under the name Kalaji, he released an electro-pop album of the same name. NME reviewer Cat Woods described the music as reminiscent of Icelandic band Sigur Rós, and overall "an atmospheric, expansive adventure in synths, instrumentals, field recordings, and treated vocals – and a meditation on themes of intergenerational wisdom and memory". Partly recorded on country and produced at Wawili Sound Studios in Broome, Coles Smith explores his relationship with Martuwarra (the Fitzroy River catchment area) and his Nyikina culture. It includes field recordings of natural sounds,, published by Heavy Machinery Records, 29 November 2021. and one of the ten tracks is named "Wandjina", the cloud and rain spirits of Aboriginal Australian mythology.
Narration (audio) In 2020, Coles Smith narrated an extract from the Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man From Snowy River" on RN Breakfast.
Coles Smith narrated the audiobook of Tasmanian Aboriginal author Adam Thompson's short story collection, Born Into This (2021).
In 2023 he narrated and co-produced the epic book by Greg Campbell in a 31-year collaboration with senior Law-keeper Lulu (Nyikina elder, Paddy Roe) and the Goolarabooloo people, Total Reset: realigning with our timeless holistic blueprint for living.The 36-hour audiobook narration by Mark Coles Smith can be previewed at www.totalreset.com.au
Recognition and awards Year Work Award Category Result Ref. Mark Coles Smith Casting Guild of Australia Sirius Award for New Talent of the Future 2007 Mark Coles Smith Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development Yvonne Cohen Award 2015 Last Cab to Darwin FCCA Awards Best Actor in a Supporting Role 2015 AACTA Awards Best Supporting Actor 2016 Pawno AACTA Awards Best Supporting Actor 2017 The Drover's Wife Helpmann Awards Best Male Actor in a Play 2022 Mystery Road: Origin 12th AACTA Awards AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Series 2023 Mystery Road: Origin 12th AACTA International Awards AACTA International Award for Best Actor in a Series 2023 Mark Coles Smith Logie Awards Gold Logie
Personal life Coles Smith was deeply affected by the suicide of a close friend in 2011, when he was 23 years old, but kept his experience and feelings hidden until several weeks into the making of the documentary Keeping Hope ten years later.
In an appearance on Take 5, a show hosted by Zan Rowe on ABC Television, Coles Smith said that his grandmother was Ningali Lawford, then a dancer at Bangarra Dance Theatre in Sydney (later an actress).
Coles Smith moved to Melbourne in 2015. After many years of living on the east coast of Australia, he had returned to his hometown Broome by 2023.
Filmography
Television Year Title Role Notes 2003 Ocean Star 'Spider' Webb 12 episodes 2005 Blue Heelers Luke Parnell Episode: "One Good Turn" 2007–2010 The Circuit Billy Wallan 8 episodes 2009 Dirt Game Willie Episode: "Boab Dreaming" 2013 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Tom Derrimut Episode: "Deadweight" 2013–2018 Hard Rock Medical Gary Frazier Main role; Canadian series 2014 Modern Family Australian Guide Episode: "Australia"; American series The Gods of Wheat Street Tristan Freeburn 6 episodes Old School Jason Dhurkay 8 episodes 2015 Airlock Jonah Ashbrook 2016 Hunters Dylan Briggs 13 episodes; American series Please Like Me Ricky 1 episode 2017 Doctor Doctor Dan 2 episodes 2017–2023 Little J & Big Cuz Uncle Mick (voice) 20 episodes 2018 Picnic at Hanging Rock Tom 6 episodes Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Specialist Crash (voice) 2017–2020 Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell Various (including Bumfrey Moo) 14 episodes2019 Lift Guy Web series KGB William 5 episodes Les Norton Jack 'Palings' Murphy 1 episode 2019 Zero-Point Kyle Burton Voice, 4 episodes 2020 Halifax: Retribution Kip Lee TV series; 7 episodes 2022 Savage River Joel Thorpe TV series; 6 episodes 2022, 2025 Mystery Road: Origin Jay Swan Series 3 main, succeeded Aaron Pedersen2023 The Clearing Wayne Dhurrkay TV seriesErotic Stories Manny Episode: "Imperfect Paw Paw" 2025 Apple Cider Vinegar Justin Guthrie TV series: 6 episodes
Film YearTitleRolesNotes2026 The Pout-Pout FishHector Voice2025Beast of WarLeoWe Bury the DeadRiley2023Combat Wombat: Back 2 BackReginaldScarygirlRiver Bandit (voice)2022Sweet AsIanAkoniSammy2021JarliCuzzoShort2020The Story of Lee PingJackShortOccupation: RainfallCaptain Wessex2016MiroMiroShortMessiahShort2015Last Cab to DarwinTillyFCCA Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated – AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleWon – AFCA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RolePawnoPaulyNominated – AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated – FCCA Award for Best Supporting Actor2014WurinyanHenryShort2013Around The BlockSteve Wood2012Ace of SpadesChristianShort2010Beneath Hill 60Billy Bacon2025Beast of WarLeo
Narrator/presenter YearTItleRoleNotes 2019 Will Australia Ever Have a Black Prime Minister? Presenter 2020 Outback Ringer Narrator 2023 The Dog House Australia Narrator 2025 The Kimberley Presenter/Narrator
Theatre
As actor Year TItle Role Notes Ref. 2005 Crabbing at High Tide Scented Gardens, Perth with Barking Gecko Theatre Company for Perth International Arts Festival 2016 The Drover's Wife Yadaka Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney Wulamanayuwi and Seven Pamanui Darwin Festival Jandamarra 2018 Bliss Joel / various roles Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney 2018 Bottomless Jason Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne 2020 Black Ties Kane Sydney Festival, Sydney Town Hall, Studio Underground, Perth, ANZ Pavillion, Melbourne, Shed 6, Wellington, Waitākere Room, Auckland with Ilbijerri Theatre Company
As crew Year TItle Role Notes Ref. 2016 Blaaq Catt Sound Designer La Mama, Melbourne for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017 Which Way Home Sound Designer Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney for Sydney Festival 2019 Night River Sound Designer Yirramboi Festival, Melbourne Sources:
Footnotes
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