| Shantae Barnes-Cowan | |
| Birth Place: | South Australia |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Notable Works: | Sweet As Firebite |
Shantae Barnes-Cowan (born) is an Aboriginal Australian actress. She starred in the TV series Total Control (2019), Operation Buffalo (2020), and Firebite (2021-2022), and the feature films (2021), and Sweet As (2022). Among other accolades, she was nominated for the 2024 AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Sweet As.
Shantae Barnes-Cowan was born in and was placed in a foster family when she was a year old in Whyalla, South Australia. She is very close to her foster parents, the Cowans. She is an Adnyamathanha woman, and has three sisters and seven brothers.[1]
She did not study drama at school, but always admired Deborah Mailman and Jessica Mauboy.[1] In 2021, while studying Year 12 in high school, 18-year-old Barnes-Cowan worked on film sets across Australia. She credited her foster family for helping her juggle her career and education.[2] [3] She completed year 12 at Samaritan College, Whyalla, in 2021.[4]
In her screen debut, Barnes-Cowan played Jess Clarke in season 1 of the award-winning Australian political drama series Total Control in 2019.[5] She played Peggy[5] in Operation Buffalo in May 2020. Adelaide casting director Angela Heesom, who auditioned Barnes-Cowan for the role, said later that she had told her that day that she was going to be an actor and was a "star in the making", who had all the natural instinct. She described her "as an Indigenous version of Julia Roberts".[6]
In 2021, she completed filming the horror film Wyrmwood Apocalypse, playing the character Maxi in her first feature film.[5]
She played the lead role Shanika in the AMC+ international TV miniseries Firebite.[5] Firebite, which was filmed in Adelaide,[4] was created by Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher. Shanika is the adoptive daughter of Tyson, played by Rob Collins, and both play vampire-killing "bloodhunters". The series aims to tell the story of the colonisation of Australia from an Indigenous perspective, using vampires as metaphors for smallpox.[7]
She played the lead role as troubled teen Murra in Jub Clerc's directorial feature debut,[5] the coming-of-age film set in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, Sweet As (2022). She had a leading role in Sweet As, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.[1]
In 2023, she completed filming on a short film, The Redemption, an Australian Western filmed in Tamworth, New South Wales.[1] It was directed by Peter Cameron, and premiered in July 2024.[8]
She moved to Adelaide to study beauty therapy at TAFE, while also auditioning for new roles, including internationally.[1]
As a teenager, Barnes-Cowan was an active sportsperson and community leader. She played country and regional netball, as well as regional and state level basketball, representing South Australia.[5]
Barnes-Cowan has been South Australian ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.[5]
| 2023 | The Redemption | Alice | Short | |
| 2022 | Sweet As | Murra | ||
| 2021 | Maxi |
| 2021-22 | Firebite | Shanika | 8 episodes | |
| 2019-21 | Jess Clarke | 7 episodes | ||
| 2020 | Peggy | 6 episodes |