Headshot for Karen Vickery

Karen Vickery (she/her)

Karen Vickery is a Canberra-based actor and director. She was co-founder of Pigeonhole Theatre and played Mrs Betterton in their acclaimed production of Playhouse Creatures which played at The Q, before touring to Mondial du Theatre Festival in Monte Carlo, followed by regional tours of NSW, Brisbane QLD and Victoria. For Pigeonhole she directed Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and starred in Switzerland by Joanna Murray Smith at Canberra Theatre Centre. 

Since graduating from NIDA in 1983, Karen has appeared in many guest roles on television, worked in radio dramas for ABC, and voiced several documentaries. She acted for Sydney Theatre Company, and in commercial productions. Highlights include Nicholas Nickleby and All My Sons for STC, and A Streetcar Named Desire with Angela Punch McGregor, Martin Shaw, and Katrina Foster in which Karen played Eunice. 

Karen is also a co-founder of independent theatre collective, ACT Hub and Artistic Director of resident theatre company Chaika Theatre. At ACT Hub, Karen has produced and performed in Three Tall Women, Collected Stories, The Children, and Seagull which she translated and adapted. Most recently Chaika presented Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of Mary Stuart. Chaika has received Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards, and Ovation Awards. 

In 2022, Karen received the Helen Tsongas Award for outstanding Acting at the Canberra Critics Awards. 

Karen holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art from NIDA and was a lecturer and Head of Department at NIDA from 1996-2011. She has performed for Sydney Theatre Company and at Belvoir as well as in commercial theatre, film and television over her 40+ year professional career. 

Karen was Chair of Canberra Youth Theatre from 2017-2023 and is a member of the Performing Arts Reference Group for the new development of Canberra Theatre Centre. From 2011-2022, Karen was Director of Access and Learning at the National Portrait Gallery, leading a team of Educators and Front of House staff and serving on the gallery’s Directorate. 

She has translated Russian plays for NIDA, WAAPA, Sydney Theatre Company, Sport for Jove, and Belvoir, most recently creating a new site-specific version of Seagull for ACT Hub. 

In 2023-2024 Karen has played Lear for Echo Theatre at The Q, Arkadina in Seagull, Alice in Queers, and Elizabeth I in Mary Stuart at ACT Hub.  

Karen has recently completed filming for a multi-media production of Alice: Mother of Cinema, a coproduction of National Theatre of Parramatta and NIDA, directed by Mark Bolotin. She has just filmed a guest role in an episode of NCIS: Sydney as Russian Consul-General, Lina Bukovska,  and has recently wrapped filming of an independent film by Jess Beange called Animal.

Productions