Aaron Pedersen

Pedersen, who is of Arrernte and Arabana descent, was born and grew up in Alice Springs,[1] one of eight children. He and his seven siblings grew up in foster homes away from their alcoholic mother,[2] Margaret,[3] and experienced much family violence in the home.[4] From an early age, he looked after his brother, Vinnie, who has cerebral palsy and a mild intellectual disability.[3]

In the early 1990s, Pedersen underwent a cadetship at the ABC in Melbourne, and worked as a journalist and presenter. He was a host for the TV series Blackout.[1]

His acting career began in 1994, when he starred in the miniseries Heartland and was voted Bachelor of the Year by Cleo magazine.[5] He came to notice in 1995 as co-host of Gladiators Australia, an Australian game show.

Pedersen's first major acting role was as lawyer Vince Cellini in Wildside in 1997. In 1999, he played Detective Senior Constable Michael Reilly in Water Rats, and took a major role in The Secret Life of Us (2005).[1]

Since 2007, he had the leading role in SBS's drama series The Circuit, and from 2007 to 2011 he appeared in Channel Seven's drama City Homicide. He appeared as Cam Delray in ABC Television's Jack Irish series, beginning in 2012 and running for several seasons.[1]

Pedersen took the lead role of Detective Jay Swan in Ivan Sen's Mystery Road (2013), a role he reprised in its sequel film Goldstone (2016), and its spin-off television series (2018-2020).[6][1]

He played war veteran Frank Gibbs in A Place to Call Home (2017-2018) and Tom Campbell in Total Control (2019). In 2020 to 2021 he was the presenter for an ABC Television documentary series Australia Remastered. In the same year he featured as a presenter with the writer Holly Ringland in an 8-episode documentary series on ABC Television called Back to Nature.[7]

In 2007 Pedersen was the recipient of the Bob Maza Fellowship, which recognises emerging acting talent and support professional development for Indigenous actors.[8]

Pedersen speaks at schools and prisons, and is concerned at the rate of incarceration of Indigenous Australians, seeing parallels with the early history of Australia, being founded as a penal colony; the link between poverty and crime.[1] Other speaking roles include emceeing various events, including the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival, and has hosted Black Nite Film Festival since 2009. He was co-host of the 2011 Deadly Awards, and has undertaken many other public speaking engagements.[11]

Pedersen looked out for his younger brother Vinnie, who has cerebral palsy and mild intellectual disabilities, on and off since he was a child.[3] In 1997, when Aaron was following his career as an actor in Sydney, their grandmother, who had been helping to care for Vinnie in Alice Springs, died. There were no services available nor other family support, so Aaron took on the role as full-time carer and Vinnie joined him in Sydney. After things got difficult for Aaron, his de facto mother-in-law, Mum Frances, stepped in and Vinnie moved in with her.[3]

Vinnie accompanies Aaron during his filming.[14] The short documentary film My Brother Vinnie (2006), written by Pedersen, directed by Steven McGregor, and shot by Warwick Thornton (both friends), was selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival and Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival.[15][3][16]

Pedersen's partner in life is Sarah Bond. He says that caring for Vinnie means that there is no space in their lives for children. He loves working with wood, and has a "secret desire to be a tradie".[1]

• "Aaron Pedersen is a different kind of archetypal leading man" by Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times, 13 October 2020

• Aaron Pedersen at IMDb