McGahan has appeared in Australian film, television and theatre. Her most notable appearance to date is starring as Nellie Cameron in the hit Australian TV series Underbelly: Razor, in which she plays a 16-year-old 1920s prostitute from a wealthy background who influenced some of the era's most powerful men, for which she won the Inside Film 'Out of the Box' Award and was nominated for two Logies. In 2012 she received a 'Best Emerging Artist' Matilda Award for her performance in La Boite Theatre Company's Julius Caesar.
Anna McGahan (born 2 May 1988) is an Australian Actress and Playwright, who has appeared in Australian television, film and theatre.
McGahan is also a Playwright. She won the Queensland Theatre Company Young Playwright's Award in 2009 and 2010, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Drama Award in 2011. In 2012 she produced her full-length play He's Seeing Other People Now through the Metro Arts Independents Season in Brisbane.
McGahan grew up in Coorparoo, Queensland she went to Brisbane Girls Grammar School located in Brisbane City and studied for a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at QUT, graduating in 2010. She subsequently relocated to Sydney. Growing up she was a dedicated ballet Dancer and then began studying psychology upon finishing high school. It was then after in 2012 she moved again, this time in Melbourne.
She is best known for playing the roles of Nellie Cameron in the Australian television series, Underbelly: Razor (2011), Lucy in House Husbands (2012-2014), and Rose Anderson in ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ (2015-2018).
On 27 June 2012, McGahan was awarded the Heath Ledger scholarship at the Australians in Film benefit in Los Angeles.
Before moving to Melbourne, McGahan was against Christianity that served as her "own self-hatred". She converted to Christianity while reading a Gideon's Bible in a hotel room, which had a "series of spiritual encounters". She joined the Salvation Army in 2014 and works with several other local churches.
In 2016, she was short-listed for The Saturday Paper’s national essay award, ‘The Horne Prize’.
She received the Queensland Young Playwright’s Award in 2008 and 2009, and was short-listed for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award in 2010, for her play ‘He’s Seeing Other People Now’. She co-wrote the immersive theatre piece ‘The People of the Sun’ with Joel McKerrow, which toured Melbourne and Sydney in 2016 and 2017.
