Andrea James

Andrea James is an Aboriginal Australian playwright and theatre director, best known for her plays Yanagai Yanagai and Sunshine Super Girl, the latter about tennis star Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

Early life and education Andrea James is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai woman, who also has Polish and Tamil heritage. She is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Shadrach James and granddaughter of Shadrach Livingstone James.

She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts.

Career James has produced plays for Carriageworks, Blacktown Arts Centre, Urban Theatre Projects, La Mama Theatre and Ilbijerri, among others. Her works have been staged throughout Australia as well as in the United Kingdom, Paris and New York City. before being appointed as Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre in 2001, occupying this role until 2008. It was here that she wrote and produced Yangali Yangali. The play is commencing a tour starting at the Darwin Festival in August 2022. where she is producing Melissa Bubnic's Ghosting the Party which opened at the Stables Theatre, Sydney in May, until 18 June 2022. In October 2024 a slightly scaled-down version of the show undertook a tour of 16 prisons.

In 2025, James was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, following the departure of Rachael Maza.

Recognition and awards Recipient of an Arts NSW Aboriginal Arts Fellowship 2026: Winner of the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, NSW Premier's Literary Awards for The Black Woman of Gippsland

Works Yangali Yangali Blacktown Angels for Home Country Bukal Winyanboga Yurringa Bright World Home Country The Torch Winyanboga Yurringa Dogged (co-writer, with Cath Ryan) The Black Woman of Gippsland