At a glance…
- My Brilliant Career is getting a new life on Netflix with a series launching on 13 August 2026.
- The Australian series stars Philippa Northeast in the main role and Kate Mulvany, Jake Dunn, and Miah Madden.
- Watch the trailer for the series below.
It was the book which saw its teenage author have the country’s most prestigious literary awards named after her, and the film which launched the careers of Judy Davis and Sam Neill. Now, My Brilliant Career is getting a Netflix makeover.
The series is launching on Netflix on 13 August 2026. However, if you want to rewatch the 1979 Australian film that made stars of its previously unknown cast, including Sam Neill, you can watch My Brilliant Career on ABCiview or on Netflix.
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin was only 19 when she wrote her debut novel, stealing hours in the evenings after she’d finished her chores at the drought-ridden family dairy farm near Goulburn in regional NSW. All up, it took her six months to complete.
When Australian publishers continually rejected the novel, she sent a copy to acclaimed poet Henry Lawson. Immediately, he knew it was a hit. Using his contacts, he arranged for the book to be published by William Blackwood & Son in Edinburgh. In 1901, under the male pseudonym of Miles Franklin, the book was released. Not that her gender was hidden for long.
In a preface for the novel, Henry wrote: “I hadn’t read three pages when I saw what you will no doubt see at once – that the story had been written by a girl. And as I went on, I saw that the work was Australian – born of the bush … the descriptions of bush life and scenery came startlingly, painfully real to me, and I know that.”
Is My Brilliant Career a true story?
Thought to be largely autobiographical, Miles Franklin’s story follows Sybylla Melvyn, a clever, headstrong young girl growing up in rural Australia in the 1890s. As drought grips the country and her family slides into poverty (and her father turns to the bottle to cope), Sybylla is sent with her far-better-off grandmother.
It’s here she meets the wealthy and handsome Harold Beecham, who, despite Sybylla believing herself to be ugly and undesirable to a prospective husband due to her lack of wealth and abundance of brains, falls in love with her and proposes.
But far from being a classic romance tale, Sybylla decides she doesn’t want marriage. Instead, she wants to pursue a career as a writer. “I can’t lose myself in someone else’s life when I haven’t lived my own yet,” she proclaims – a shocking outcome for a woman of her time. What will that mean for her future?
Philippa Northeast cast in the lead role
In the 2026 Netflix refresh, the protagonist is portrayed by Philippa Northeast. We spoke with the Australian actress last year, just after production wrapped.
“The courage of this particular character, 145 years ago, at a time when women had no rights, was everything,” Philippa told The Weekly. “Yet this was a young 18-year-old, full of spirit, full of life, saying I want to live life my own way.”
“She rides horses, she sprints, she sings, she dances, she writes, she uses everything in her arsenal as a woman to lead her own life… And so risky, but for the sake of your own life.”
It’s a dream role for Philippa, who gave her all to the performance and studied the source material in detail. She was also granted access to Miles Franklin’s journals at the State Library of New South Wales.
“I held the most beautiful little journal, Miles Franklin’s last journal… Her last words ever, written in grey lead, were “returned to bed”, and then she passed away.”
The experience was almost overwhelming. “It was really, I was almost too much to hold… It felt really dreamlike and surreal to be in that position.”
“The gift Miles gave me, and all her readers, is this: through Syb, [Miles] loudly asks us who we might become if we were brave enough to believe in ourselves,” Philippa said after Netflix’s “A Toast to Miles Franklin” event in Sydney. “She challenges us to know ourselves honestly and offers us the confidence to pursue a life that feels true to us even if it’s awkward and even when it challenges our societal expectations…more than a century later, her words still remind us that ambition is not arrogance, pants are optional, contradiction is a right of passage and dreaming beyond a life planned for you is worth fighting for.”
Who is in the cast of the Netflix refresh of My Brilliant Career?
Joining Philippa in the cast are Christopher Chung (Slow Horses, Blitz) as Harry (the role once held by Sam Neill), Anna Chancellor (My Lady Jane, Outrageous) as Mrs Bossier, Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor, The Dry) as Helen, Kate Mulvany (Hunters, Elvis) as Augusta, Jake Dunn (What It Feels Like For a Girl, Ballad of Renegade Nell) as Frank, Alexander England (Black Snow, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) as Julius, Sherry-Lee Watson (Thou Shalt Not Steal, Heartbreak High) as Nell, and Miah Madden (Paper Dolls, The Clearing) as Betty.
We also spoke with Miah after production wrapped on My Brilliant Career. This upcoming reimagining integrates Indigenous perspectives into a classic 1890s story.
“There were Indigenous people, very much so,” she tells The Weekly. “And they always were there.” Bringing those voices into historical narratives, she felt, was a “great liberty.”
Watch the trailer:
My Brilliant Career launches on 13 August 2026 on Netflix. For more information, head here.
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