Jub Clerc

Jub Clerc, also known as Suzanne Jub Clerc, is a Indigenous Australian actor, playwright, film director, and screenwriter. She has worked in film and television since the early 2000s and has also worked in theatre. She is best known for her 2022 debut feature Sweet As.

Early life and education Suzanne Jub Clerc is a Nyulnyul and Yawuru woman. Her mother was actress Sylvia Clarke. Clarke grew up around Beagle Bay, Broome, in the Kimberley region in Western Australia, while Clerc grew up around Port Hedland, in the Pilbara. So although her ancestors were from the Nyul Nyul/Yawuru peoples of the Kimberleys, her family married into the Pilbara families four or five generations ago.

At the age of 14, Clerc was encouraged by her teachers to go on a photography trip for teenagers around the Pilbara. She did not realise it at the time, but the group were considered at-risk adolescents, after her grades had dropped due to an absent mother and somewhat troubled home life. She later said that this trip changed her life, enabling her to see other possibilities outside her home town, a mining town.

When she was 18 she was accepted into the Aboriginal Theatre Training program that emerged from Bran Nue Dae. after undertaking a three-year course in acting.

Career Clerc has said that she likes to write comedy, or dramedy, even about serious themes.

She wrote The Fever and the Fret, which debuted at Yirra Yaakin in Perth, winning the 2017 Kate Challis Award.

Film and television Jub's directorial debut in film was Storytime, a short thriller film released in 2007. The story was based on the Nyul Nyul/Yawuru stories she had heard in childhood of the spirit of a woman that lived in the mangroves and stole children, the Gooynbooyn woman. between ABC Television, ScreenWest, and the Film and Television Institute of Western Australia. At that time, she was a member of the 2 Deadly Casting & Artist Agency in Broome.

She has worked in a range of roles in television and film, including casting director, extras casting coordinator, dramaturge, and associate producer. Among others, she worked on Bran Nue Dae, and Jandamarra's War, Mad Bastards, Satellite Boy, The Circuit, Jasper Jones, and series 1 of Mystery Road.

In September 2020, Clerc was selected as one of eight participants in a new writing and directing initiative organised by WA Indigenous production companies Pink Pepper and Ramu Productions, along with and New Zealand company Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, called the RED project. The project consisted of development workshops enabling each participant to write and direct a 10-minute short film, which would be part of a single anthology 80-minute feature film (working title RED) consisting of stories from a female Aboriginal perspective. The other participants were Kodie Bedford, Debbie Carmody, Kelli Cross, Karla Hart, Chantelle Murray, Ngaire Pigram, and Mitch Torres.

She directed the half-hour music documentary Struggling Songlines, produced by brothers and band members of The Struggling Kings from One Arm Point, Luke and Dan Riches, which premiered on NITV as part of Karla Grant Presents on 17 January 2022.

She is most noted for her 2022 debut feature film Sweet As, a coming-of-age film partly drawn from her own experiences. Clerc was creator of the series, which she co-wrote and co-directed with Kimberly Benjamin. and premiered on NITV on 26 June 2025.

Other activities Clerc is a member of the Official Competition Jury for the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2025.

Recognition and awards 2013: Nominated, AACTA Award for Best Direction at the 3rd AACTA Awards, as part of the ensemble directing The Turning 2014: Nominated, Best Screenplay in the Australian Film Critics Association Awards, as part of the ensemble directing The Turning 2017: Winner, Kate Challis Award, for the play The Fever and the Fret 2022: Winner, NETPAC Award for best film from the Asia/Pacific region, Toronto International Film Festival, for best film from the Asia/Pacific region, for Sweet As 2022: Nominated, Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Youth Film, for Sweet As 2023: Winner, Crystal Bear in the Generation Kplus section, 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, for Sweet As 2023: Nominated, Best Direction in a Debut Feature Film at the ADG Awards, for Sweet As 2024: Nominated, AACTA Award for Best Direction at the 13th AACTA Awards, for Sweet As

Personal life Clerc's family totem is the Jinda-Bidirbiddir (Willie wagtail). She is related to actors Mark Coles Smith and Ngaire Pigram, who were cast in Sweet As.

She has a child.