AustLit

Film director.

Born in Lofi, Macedonia, in northern Greece, Nadia Tass moved to Australia with her parents in the 1960s. After initially pursuing an academic career in Arts and Education, Nadia Tass began acting and later directing classical and contemporary theatre in Melbourne. Among her productions as director are three Louis Nowra plays, Miss Bosnia, Cosi and Summer of the Aliens. In 1983 she and David Parker founded Cascade Films, and three years she directed her first feature film Malcolm (1986). Since then Tass has directed the Australian features Rikky and Pete (1987), The Big Steal (1989), Mr Reliable (1997), Amy (1998) and Matching Jack (2010). She also directed the 1993 BBC/ABC mini-series, Stark, based on the best-selling novel by Ben Elton.

In addition to Tass's Australian work are a number of US feature films and telemovies, including Pure Luck (1991), The Miracle Worker (2000), Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001), Undercover Christmas (2003), Samantha: An American Girl Holiday (2004), Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005) and Custody (2007).

Between film projects, Tass continues to direct for the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2002/2003, for example, she directed the musical production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which toured Australia and New Zealand and garnered Tass a nomination for Best Direction of a Musical at the 2003 Sir Robert Helpmann Awards. In 2010 she directed The Gronholm Method a play by Jordi Galceron for The Red Stitch Actors' Theatre (the first production of this play in English) and Three Women, a new play by Elizabeth Fotheringham, staged in London's West End.