Rachael Zoa Maza , also credited as Rachael Maza Long, is an Indigenous Australian television and film actress, and stage director. She is known for her role in the 1998 film Radiance, and worked with Company B and Wesley Enoch in Sydney for many years. She was artistic director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2008 to 2025.
Rachael Zoa Maza is of Dutch, Torres Strait Islander (Meriam Mir) and Aboriginal Australian heritage, the daughter of Bob Maza, also an actor. She has a younger sister Lisa, and their father would encourage them to play guitar and sing together.
She is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Maza has numerous stage credits (sometimes credited as Rachael Maza Long), since at least 1992. She worked with Company B and Wesley Enoch for many years, with her performances at the Belvoir St Theatre including leading roles in Conversations with the Dead and The Dreamers. She again worked with Enoch in The Sapphires, staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Festival.
She directed Lou Bennett's play Show Us Your Tiddas! in 2007. In 2009, she appeared on stage with her younger sister, Lisa Maza, in a play that they had co-written. They were also sisters in the play. Also in that year, the sisters co-created Sisters of Gelam, which incorporated cabaret, puppetry, dance, and spoken word to present a story about two sisters who travel to the Torres Strait Island of Mer, their grandfather's Country.
From 2008 to 2025, Maza was artistic director and co-CEO of Ilbijerri Theatre Company. In 2024, for Ilbijerri, she co-directed the musical Big names, no blankets about the formation of the Warumpi Band. Her co-director was Anyupa Butcher, the daughter of band member Sammy Butcher.
In February 2026, Maza is appearing on stage with her sister Lisa at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, in the world premiere of Jada Alberts' play Black Light, directed by Alberts.
Maza's first outing on Australian television was in the ABC Television series Heartland in 1994. She and Lillian Crombie, who also appeared in the series, were fresh out of acting school at that time. The series was written by Aboriginal Australians ans starred many Aboriginal actors, as well as Cate Blanchett in her first screen outing.
She worked as a TV presenter on ABC Television's weekly show focusing on Indigenous Australians, Message Stick. and SBS's ICAM in 1997âÂÂ1998.
Maza has numerous credits as an actor in television series, including Wentworth, Winners and Losers, Halifax f.p., Stingers, SeaChange, Heartland (in which her father also had a role), A Country Practice, and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
She acted in the films Cosi (1996), Radiance (1998), and Lilian's Story (1996).
Rachael and Lisa Maza played and sung together as the Maza Sisters, performing at several festivals and events, including the Dreaming Festival in 2009 and the 150th anniversary of the National Gallery of Victoria in 2011.
Maza was deputy chair from 2014, and then, from 2016, chair of The Black Arm Band theatre organisation until it closed down in December 2017.
In September 2024, Maza was appointed co-chair, with Philip Watkins (CEO of Desart), of First Nations Arts, a newly-established division of the Australia Council, for a term of four years.
In 2020 Maza was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for significant service to the performing arts as an artistic director.
Maza has a son, Ariel, with actor Tom Long.