Max Sharam is a multi-award-winning composer, vocalist, producer, and interdisciplinary artist. Her practice integrates voice, projected image, and digital media to create hybrid works that merge live performance with moving image and sound. Her latest work, Mezzo Cuckoo: Diva Gone Dada, is a daring hybrid of coloratura, absurdist theatre, and live comedy that audiences have hailed as “mind-blowing,” praising its originality and powerful message.

Max is also a sessional academic in Digital Effects for Film and Video at The University of Sydney.

Often described as “unique” and “highly original,” Sharam is an eight-time ARIA nominee/winner and platinum-selling recording artist. She is the founder of the production company and record label Purple Flower Music, and produced and performed the music for the AFI Award–winning documentary Forbidden Lie$ (screened at MoMA, New York).

Her career spans multiple disciplines. In live performance, her one-woman shows have appeared at the Adelaide and Sydney Fringe Festivals, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Hong Kong Fringe Festival and the New York Arts Festival. In musical theatre she has starred in productions across Europe, the United States and Australia, and has shared stages with artists including Patti Smith, k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge, Bob Dylan and Tori Amos, while touring with Cyndi Lauper and Chris Isaak.

Blending music, documentary and technology, Sharam creates hybrid works that combine video performance, digitally manipulated media and experimental sound. In 2008, her video work Sleeping Beauties was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), screening alongside Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno. At once whimsical and unsettling, her work carries an eerie, dreamlike quality. Through aleatoric play and surreal imagery, Sharam explores the vulnerable underbelly of human experience, where misfit characters wrestle with questions of identity, equality and belonging.

Awards and Honors

•    ARIA Awards (Australian Recording Industry Association) — 8 nominations including Best Female Artist, Best   New Talent, and Best Album.
•    ARIA Award Winner — Best Album Artwork.
•    Ballhausen Pipe Organ Scholarship  — recipient (2016, 2017)
•    Non-Fiction Writing Mentorship, Melbourne Libraries — recipient.
•    APRA Professional Development Award — finalist.
•    Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition — finalist.
•    Star of the Year Award, Cole Porter Festival, Genoa, Italy.

Artist Residencies
2024 Yaddo, New York, USA.
2019 Arts Letters & Numbers, Averill Park, New York, USA.
2017 Duda Paiva Company Residency, Teatr Animacji, Poznań, Poland.
2015 Familie Flöz Academy Residency, Tuscania, Italy.
2010 Salem2Salem Artists Residency, Salem Castle, Germany.

Solo Multimedia Performance Works
•    Mezzo Cuckoo: Diva Gone Dada (2026) — Sydney and Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
•    Bushpygmalion (2010) — Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
•    Songs in My Suitcase (2009) — The Butterfly Club, Melbourne.
•    Butterfly Suicide (2005) — Hong Kong Fringe Festival.
•    Mademoiselle Max (2000) — Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 

Screen Works
•    Crowded River (2026) — short film, 8 min. Writer / Co-Director / Producer / Composer. Official Selection,
Nyack International Film Festival.
•    Eve & The Burning Bush (2017) — HD video art, 4 min.
•    Diptych Dive (2016) — Loop, Video art diptych.
•    Women in Wigs (2015) — Loop. Video art diptych.
•    Four Minute Max (2012) — Vlog and animated series, 12 episodes.
•    Sleeping Beauties (2008) — Short FIlm, 7 min. Official Selection, Berlin International Film Festival
•    Sleeping Senses (1995) — Short film, Super-8, 10 min.

Publications
•    Loving Arrangements: Stories About Modern Living and Loving (Rutgers University Press, June 2026).
•    Snakes Live Under My Bed (Independent Press, 2022).
•    Women of Letters (Penguin Random House, 2016).
•    Fury (Hardie Grant, 2015).
•    Stirring Up a Storm (Mammoth Books, USA, 2005).
•    Allegory for Immature Adults (Independent Release, USA, 2003).
•    Night Out (HarperCollins Australia, 2002).
•    Pizza Poetry (Darlinghurst Writers Collective, 1999).

Music for Film and Television
Sharam has composed, produced, and performed music for numerous film and television projects.
Her music also features in the ABC/BBC comedy series Crazy Fun Park (Hulu,  2023).

•    Luxville (2019) — additional music (composer / producer / performer).
•    Expired (2007) — additional music (composer / producer / performer).
•    Forbidden Lie$ (2006) — music producer / performer (AFI Award for Best Documentary).
•    Frozen Angels (2001) — composer / producer / performer.
•    The Big Tease (1999) — additional music.
•    Change of Heart (1998) — additional music / co-writer.
•    Die Heilige Hure (1997) — additional music.

Audio & Music
•    The Gods Envy (Purple Flower Music, 2014).
•    A Million Year Girl (LP, Warner Music, 1996).
•    Coma (EP, Warner Music).
•    I’m Busy (CAM, Italy, 1985).
•    Absolutely Furious (2020) — podcast series, host / writer / producer, 5 episodes
 
Music Videos
•    Coma — Warner Music.
•    Be Firm — Warner Music.
•    Lay Down — Warner Music..
•    Mermaid Blues — Director/Animator
•    Permanent Resident — Director/Animator.
•    Loved Her So Long — Director Performer/Animator.
•    Crashlanding! — Super-8. Writer/Co-director (with Tracy Brook).

Theatre Performances (Selected Roles)
•    The Hanging of Jean Lee (2013), Arts House, Melbourne.
•    Anaconda (2012), Hollywood Fringe — composer / sound designer.
•    Late Night Lounge with Justin Bond (2009), Sydney Opera House Theatre.
•    The Hanging of Jean Lee – The Musical (2006) — “Jean Lee,” Sydney Opera House Theatre.
•    Penthesilea (2006), Dahesh Museum of Art, New York.
•    Rooftop Cabaret Performance Troupe (2006), New York.
•    The Camera (2002), Electric Lodge, Los Angeles.
•    Fourplay (1994), Darlinghurst Players Theatre.
•    The Magic Flute (1990) — “Papagena,” Sydney Light Opera Company.
•    Forza Venite Gente (1985), Teatro Bagaglino, Rome, Italy.
•    Kolbe (1984), Teatro Il Barrocone, Rome, Italy.
•    Jesus Christ Superstar (1983) — Ballarat Theatre Workshops, Victoria.
•    Tilly Divine (1982) — “Pearlie,” Ballarat Theatre Workshops, Victoria.
•    Zigger Zagger (1982), Ballarat Youth Theatre, Victoria.

Broadcast and Television Appearances
•    Backroads (2019), ABC Television, Australia.
•    Rockwiz Tour (2015), Regent Theatre, Ballarat, Victoria.
•    Spicks and Specks (2009), ABC TV. Australia.
•    One Size Fits All (2005), Short film, School of Visual Arts, New York.
•    Jazz Nights (1998), Lifetime TV, USA.
•    La Ragazza con la Chitarra, RAI Television, Italy.
•    Big Big Bang! SBS TV, Australia.
•    Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Australia.
•    Red Faces, Nine Network, Australia
•    Dream Factory, Nine Network, Australia
•    The Bert Newton Show, Nine Network, Australia
•    Elle McFeast, ABC TV, Australia.
•    Good News Week. ABC TV, Australia.

        Exhibitions
•    Between Worlds (2019), Ballarat Gallery, Australia.
•    Five Cent Cinema (2016), Melbourne, Australia.
•    Whistleblower! (2015), Berlin, Germany.
•    Luxville (2015), Mechanics Institute, Ballarat, Australia.
•    How Now Brown Cloud? (2014), Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Australia.
•    Hypnotized Balloon (2010), Neue Museum, Salem Schloss, Germany.
•    Titanic Piano (2009), MOCA, San Francisco, USA.
•    Gay Girls (2009), ACON, Sydney Mardi Gras, Australia.
•    Sleeping Beauties (2008), Berlin International Film Festival, Germany.
•    29 Palms (2008), Spesshardt & Klein Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
•    Be Careful What You Draw (2002), Electric Lodge/Abbott Kinney Festival, Los Angeles, USA.
•    Allegory for Immature Adults (2002), Electric Ave Gallery, Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, USA.
•    Miscellaneous Max (2002), Hotel Café, Los Angeles, USA.
•    Charcoal (1998), D.U.M.B.O. Art Festival, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

AFFILIATIONS

OTHER SKILLS

After Effects, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut, Flash. Max is a Speed Typist!  
Languages: Fluent Italian. Basic German. Passive French.