Helen Buday

Helen Buday (born 1962) is an Australian theatre, TV, movie actress and singer. She appeared as Savannah Nix in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She was awarded Best Actress at the 48th Valladolid International Film Festival in 2003 for her role in Alexandra's Project.

She graduated from the National Institute for Dramatic Art in 1983, and has since become one of Australia's leading theater actors. Buday has performed with most of Australia's leading theater companies, including roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Three Sisters, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Doll's House.

While at NIDA in 1982, Buday played the role of Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In the final scene, Romeo was already dead and had not brought on the dagger for Juliet to kill herself. Unable to find it, in a moment of inspired improvised acting she jumped up onto a funeral casket and proceeded to beat herself to death by continually banging her head against it.[1]

Buday is also a singer, and she has played the lead roles in My Fair Lady, Cabaret, High Society, and The Three-penny Opera.

She made her major screen debut as Savannah Nix, leader of the feral children in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Besides her regular theater work, Buday has also appeared in various Australian television series including Land of Hope, Secrets, Water Rats, and Stingers.[2]