Mark Coles Smith

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, 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. and one of the ten tracks is named "Wandjina",

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.

Recognition and awards Year Work Award Category Result Ref.

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. Akoni Sammy 2021 Jarli Cuzzo Short

The Story of Lee Ping Jack Short Occupation: Rainfall Captain Wessex

Miro Miro Short Messiah Short

Last Cab to Darwin Tilly FCCA Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated – AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role

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