Robyn Nevin was born September 25, 1942, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to William George Nevin and Josephine Pauline Casey. She was educated at Genazzano Convent until the age of 11, when she moved with her family moved to Hobart, Tasmania, and was enrolled at the The Fahan School, a non-denominational school for girls'. While there, she played the lead in the school's production of Snow White at the Theatre Royal. Her parents were conservative and conventional, her father the managing director of Dunlop Australia, her mother a housewife, so to enter the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the age of 16 in the very first intake in 1959 was a brave step, in which she was fully supported by her parents.
At the outset of her career, she had a variety of roles in radio and television, working mainly at the Australian Broadcasting Commission, including current affairs, music, chat shows and children's shows throughout the early 1960s. She gravitated back to theatre where she has been a constant presence for the last 40 years.
Although theatre has been her home ground she has also been a reliable talent in Australian films and mini-series, landing many credits for strong supporting roles. She made one foray into directing in the little noticed The More Things Change... (1986).
In 1996 she became Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company, a position which she held with varying levels of success until 1999, when she took over the position of Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, where she was Artistic Director until the end of 2007. .
Nominated for several awards, she has twice won the Sydney Critics’ Circle Award for her theatre work.
In 1981 she won the TV Logie award in the 'Best Lead Actress in a Single Drama or Mini Series' Category for her role as Shasta in Water Under The Bridge on the Ten Network. She had already won Logies as 'Most Popular Female' in Tasmania in 1965 and 1967 during her stint at the ABC.
On 8 June 1981, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for Services to the Performing Arts.
In 1999 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Tasmania.
On 21 January 2004 she gave the Australia Day Address , a rare honour.
Nevin has been married twice, and currently lives with her partner, the US-born actor and screenwriter Nicholas Hammond. They met when they starred in Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind at the STC in 1987. She has a daughter Emily Russell who is also an actor. She lives in the Sydney inner suburb of Paddington.
