Max Sharam

Max Sharam is an Australian-American multi-disciplinary artist and singer-songwriter. In the mid-1990s, Sharam had three top 40 hit singles in Australia, "Coma", "Be Firm" and "Lay Down", from her top 10 album A Million Year Girl. She received eight nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995; winning Best Cover Art with Dominic O'Brien for the album.

Career Early Europe Sharam spent several years travelling around Europe where she initially made a living from busking. Sharam, while based in Rome, was part of a bohemian community of artists that included Kurt Wenner known for his groundbreaking street art. Whilst performing in Florence, Italy, Carlo Picone, a RAI news journalist and producer, invited her to audition for Forza Venite Gente, a hit Italian rock opera, starring Oreste Lionello, for which she landed a lead role. I did the TV spot to make a statement, because I thought it was fucking mad—all this mediocre stuff that goes on all over television. I thought, why doesn't anybody get up and represent my generation—that side of Australia that's so readily ignored? That compelled me to get on New Faces. All the phones started ringing after that. I was very lucky. – produced by Daniel Denholm and Nick Mainsbridge – with the song peaking at No. 14 on the ARIA Singles Chart during February 1995.

"Coma" was voted the eighth-most popular song on radio station, Triple J's Hottest 100 of 1994. Her debut album, A Million Year Girl, was released in May 1995, achieving gold accreditation The album spawned two more Top 40 singles, "Be Firm" (No. 25 in June) and "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" (a cover of Melanie Safka's song, which reached No. 36 in November).

Sharam performed and produced the music for 2006 AFI award winning documentary Forbidden Lie$ and in 2007 wrote, performed and produced the closing credit song for Expired, a movie starring Samantha Morton, Jason Patric, Illeana Douglas and Teri Garr.

In 2008 Sharam continued to tread new ground and experiment with platforms, creating video performance based art. She was invited to join the New York Foundation for the Arts, a not-for-profit arts organization, panel for Video Art. In February 2009 Sharam returned to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with her show Songs and Stories from My Suitcase. and followed it up with another more experimental production ″Bushpygmalion″ which featured Sharam's animated artworks in a semi-autobiographical tale. In June, 2017 her performance art was part of an exhibit in Fabrik der Künste in Hamburg, Germany as part of a retrospective for German painter, Tania Jacobi and then in September 2018 as part of the inaugural Ballarat Biennale of Australia Art (BOAA).

2010-2020 Sharam is a Master of Fine Art (MFA) and studied Animation Direction at Australian Film Television & Radio School (AFTRS, Sydney) before graduating from RMIT's Centre for Animation & Interactive Media (AIM) in 2011. In 2011 she was a finalist in the APRA Professional Development Awards and in 2013 The Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition. Sharam also created the music and sound design for the play Anaconda, which won 'Best Original Play' at Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2012.

In April 2019, Max performed "Society" at the APRA Music Awards of 2019. and appeared in Back Roads (ABC TV, "Beaufort" episode) — discussing the cultural significance of preserving historic buildings in the small country town of Beaufort, Victoria, also reflected on the Rainbow Serpent Festival as a modern cultural counterpart. [ref: ABC iview, Back Roads, "Beaufort"]

Sharam portrayed the ghost of Jean Lee in the docudrama A Miscarriage of Justice based on the hanging of Ronald Ryan.

POST COVID

2026 Max wrote and produced her first short film. Crowded River {Writer / Co-Director / Producer / Composer} Official Selection, Nyack International Film Festival; Official Selection, WILDsound Film & Screenplay Festival (Canada); WON: Best Visual Design. [ref: IMDb, tt40806904]

Contributed an essay to Loving Arrangements: Stories About Modern Living and Loving (Rutgers University Press, June 2026), [ref: rutgersuniversitypress.org/loving-arrangements/9781978844544]

And wrote and produced a new work Mezzo Cuckoo: Diva Gone Dada a genre-defying hybrid of opera, comedy, and live art; it draws on the full range of Sharam's practice while pushing into unmapped territory. Hailed by audiences at Adelaide and Sydney Fringe Festivals as "mind-blowing" for its originality and powerful message. [ref: adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/max-sharam-is-mezzo-cuckoo-af2026]

Max Sharam is also a sessional academic at the University of Sydney.

Discography Studio albums + List of studio albums, with selected chart positions and certifications Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications AUS

Extended plays + List of extended plays Title Album details I'm Occupiedreleased under the artist name, MexReleased: 1984 Label: Notte Antica Format: vinyl record, cassette ComaReleased: 1994 Label: Warner Australia Format: CD, cassette The Gods Envy Released: July 2015 Label: Max Sharam Format: Digital download|streaming

Singles Singles discography | all_albums=yes | charts=2 | include_footnote = yes chartA = AUS

Single of the Year Song of the Year Breakthrough Artist - single

Best Video

Best Female Artist Best New Talent Breakthrough Artist - Album

Best Cover Art