Casey Donovan

Casey Donovan is one of Australia’s most versatile Entertainers.

After a meteoric rise to fame at the age of 16, Casey became the youngest ever winner of Australian Idol in 2004. A proud Gumbaynggirr and Dungatti woman, first nations artist, over the last nineteen years, Donovan has made her mark not only as a musician, but also in the areas of stage, screen, presenting and writing. Casey is a multi-Award winner & nominee, including an ARIA No #1 Award and Triple Platinum for ‘Listen With Your Heart’ from the Double Platinum Album ‘For You’ and Deadly Awards for Best Album, Best Single and Most Promising New Talent.

After taking a break from music, in 2010 Casey returned to the music arena with the release of her hotly anticipated single Big, Beautiful & Sexy. As a result of this inspirational song, she not only garnered new fans Australia-wide, but also became a poster girl for fuller-figured women. Casey took her Big, Beautiful & Sexy ethos further by touring in her own show, which has seen the remarkable singer perform to sell-out crowds at some of the country’s most coveted venues and participate in events such as Adelaide Festival, Brisbane Festival, The Rocks Festival of the Voice, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute’s Spirit Festival, Darwin Festival and Yabun Festival.

Casey has also headlined her own Mama Cass Tribute concerts and supported the legendary Cyndi Lauper on her 2011 Australian National Tour.

Under the direction of Rhoda Roberts, in 2009 Casey made her theatrical debut in Miracle In Brisbane for the Brisbane Festival. This was to be the first of many acclaimed theatrical performances thus far in Casey’s career, including The Sapphires (Company B/Black Swan State Theatre Company/2010), As You Like It (Company B/2011), The Flowerchildren (Magnormos/2011, Opera Yarrabah (Opera Australia/2012), RENT (Hayes Theatre/2015), as ‘Killer Queen’ in We Will Rock You (Andrew Pole/Ben Elton/2016) and Chicago as ‘Mamma Morton’ (Frost Jones/2019).  Casey’s stage credits have earned her respect from the industry, which has seen her receive a nomination for ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical’ in the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Over the span of her illustrious career, Casey has appeared on many television programs including The Morning Show, Sunrise, 20 to 1, Today Show, Today Extra, Cram, Family Feud, ABC Playschool Storytime, Studio 10, Fusion, Yarramundi Kids, Spicks & Specks, Good, Rove Live, Carols by Candlelight, ABC New Year’s Eve & ABC Australia Day telecast’s and has presented her own indigenous music themed show Fusion on SBS/NITV during 2012 and 2013. Casey made her scripted television debut in 2018 on Network Ten’s comedy series Streetsmart as ‘Tia’ the probationary parking inspector

Casey captivated readers with her autobiography Big, Beautiful & Sexy (New Holland Publishers) and made her mark in the plus size fashion market, becoming an emcee and ambassador for the Curvy Couture Roadshow in Melbourne, plus becoming featured writer for international publications such as Pink Blitz, and Plus Model Magazine.

In January 2017, Casey was announced as a cast member of the third series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here which was filmed on location in South Africa. After six gruelling weeks in the jungle, Donovan went on to be crowned QUEEN of the Jungle by vote of the Australian Public, her second reality TV win by a public vote winning $100,000 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Casey’s appearance on the hit network 10 series has seen the versatile entertainer win an outpouring of love and support from Australian audiences. Following this Casey performed an incredibly moving cover of the David Bowie song ‘Heroes’ at the 2017 Logie Awards, for which she received a standing ovation and rave reviews from the Entertainment Industry and the general public.

Casey released her highly anticipated EP Off The Grid and Somewhere In Between, which was crowdfunded by her biggest supporters in 2017. Donovan’s new single Lonely was released jumping 60 places overnight in the iTunes single charts to the Top 30; this was followed with a series of live an intimate show around the country to reconnect Casey with music lovers and her biggest supporters.

Casey became an ambassador for Coles Supermarkets in 2017, entertaining Australians with the ‘Down Down’ campaign TV commercials and continues to lend her name and support to a number of charitable and non-profit organisations in her roles as Ambassador for RU OK, MMAD and Camp Quality and Advocate for the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, Starlight Children’s Foundation, and as one of the founding members of the New South Wales Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.

Casey has fast become a must-see and hear performer at the annual New Year’s Eve gala on the foreshore of the Sydney Opera House with performances in 2017 (Lady Marmalade, Nutbush City Limits, Think, Don’t Stop Me Now) 2019 (Rolling In the Deep, I Will Survive, If I Could Turn Back Time, Purple Rain), 2020 (September, 9 To 5, So Caught Up,) and 2021 (Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Higher Love, Finally, Born This Way) and Australia Day performances at the iconic location in 2021 (Two Strong Hearts, Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Thunderstruck) and 2022 (Age of Reason, In The Summertime) as well as co-hosting, all televised nationally on ABC TV and iView.

With growing demand from the Theatre world, in 2019 Casey starred as ‘Mama Morton’ in the Australian revival of the musical Chicago to rave reviews and in November 2019 was invited to participate in Eurovision – Australia Decides performing the original song ‘Proud’ in the national final on February 8, 2021, placing second.

In 2020, on invitation from national broadcaster, Nova Entertainment, Casey became a podcast host on ‘The Space’, a mindfulness podcast of 3–4-minute mini-episodes with cringe-free meditations, motivations, and tops on how to improve your day.

In 2021, Casey, was cast as lunatic ‘Luna Keys’ in the hit TV show How To Stay Married, alongside Peter Helliar and Lisa McCune, where she was able to peel back the layers of character acting and show her diverse talent and delivery to wide acclaim.

Throughout the pandemic in 2020/ 2021, Casey has not only entertained her fans, but nourished her own musical soul, with a Facebook Live performance BluesDay Tuesday, where each week, she acoustically performs some of her favourite songs but also fan requests.  “Bluesday is a show that uses music for healing, thought, interaction, distraction, storytelling whether it be m music or someone else’s” says Casey.  With thousands tuning in each week, Casey has decided to do a short mini tour in her home State of Victoria in October & November 2021.

In 2021 Casey took on the hosting role alongside Noni Hazelhurst and Kurt Fearnley of SBS TV’s What Does Australia Really Think?, a series that reveals what Australia thinks about disability, obesity, and old age through emotional personal stories, confronting social experiments and a nationwide survey.

Already on a health kick, Casey joined Jenny Craig as an ambassador in September 2022 and within two months for the first time in her life, Casey dipped below 100kg and feeling her best ever.  Fast forward in March 2025, Casey became the new ambassador for Juniper, a digital weight clinic that offers medical treatments and support for weight loss.

On New Year’s Eve (Eve – 30 Dec 2022), Casey released her long-awaited brand-new single ‘Shake It’.  A cross between Mambo #5 and Happy.  Shake It has two ear-worm hooks which is unheard of in pop songs these days.  The song was instantly added to ABC Radio nationally, JoyFM and many other stations coming on board.  Fans embraced the song adding it to their playlists.

Casey’s performance of This Is Me truly blew the roof off the Sydney Opera House in 2022 with over 1 Million views of the performance on ABC iView Instagram account alone, cementing her as the Queen of New Year’s Eve once again.

Casey kicked off 2023, co-hosting and performing at Australia Day Live, Sydney Opera House (ABC TV), Midsumma Victoria Pride, Sydney World Pride Opening Concert Performance and co-hosting with Courtney Act (ABC TV), Blak & Deadly First Nations Concert (at the Sydney Opera House) and the leading role of Angelique in the blockbuster musical theatre production ‘& Juliet’ which toured throughout Australia and Singapore across 2023 & 2024.  

On 1 July 2023, Casey co-hosted the annual NAIDOCC Awards in Brisbane, televised by ABC TV.  In August 2023, Casey officially partnered with clothing brand and retailer Taking Shape (TS) who have over 160 locations in Australia & New Zealand.  Casey as the new ambassador and released her own evening wear range in December 2023.  

2024 and 2025 has been hectic and busy with productions & Juliet The Musical and Sister Act The Musical and Kimberly Akimbo productions.

On Aug 29, 2025 Casey released her brand-new acoustic EP ’21 Years Retrospective’ a collection of 6 fan voted songs from her Australian Idol performances.  In October 2025 she took the stage as special guest with Marcia Hines’ tour ‘Marcia Sings Summer’ a tribute to the queen of disco, Donna Summer.  In November, Casey appeared as a surprise special guest for RockWiz national tour blowing the roof of venues with her powerful performances and as a witty pannelist.

To round off 2025, Casey will be performing in Idols of Musical Theatre with John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra featuring alumni Rob Mills and Paulini at the Melbourne Recital Hall, 27 & 28 December 2025.

In 2026, Casey will undertake her largest national tour ever, THIS IS ME with 50 + dates across the country, a full retrospective of her career thus far, with the setlist featuring songs from Australian Idol, all the hits from the Musicals, fan favourites from New Year’s Eve performance and Casey’s own originals.

Casey is an ambassador for The Australian Literature & Numeracy Foundation for Children, Support Act, AusMusic T-Shirt Day, Starlight Foundation, R U OK and Camp Quality.