Liv Hewson

Liv Hewson was born around 1996^[1] in Canberra.^[2] one of four children, with three brothers. Their mother, Angela, is a public servant and their father, Tony, is a psychologist. They grew up in the suburb of Hughes and attended Alfred Deakin High School and Canberra College.^[3]

Hewson began acting as part of the Canberra Youth Theatre. Growing up, the family watched a lot of American television shows, such as The Simpsons and Futurama, which Hewson later said made it easy to act with an American accent.^[3]

Hewson has written plays as well as acted in several TV series.^[4][5]

Hewson's play, Bona Mors, was produced by the Canberra Youth Theatre (CYT) in 2013 as part of Triptych — A Trilogy of New Works alongside Lachlan Philpott's Run! Rihanna! Run! and Jessica Bellamy's Fight or Flight. The three works were published as an anthology by Currency Press.^[6][7] They had been a member of CYT for three years in the lead-up to the production.^[8] Their written work includes "lots of re-imaginings of fairytales and mythology with a queer and dark slant."^[9]

In 2014, Hewson traveled to Los Angeles^[10] to attend an acting workshop. In 2016, they played the lead role of Claire Duncan in the fantasy web series Dramaworld.^[11]

In 2017, they starred in the film Before I Fall and had recurring roles in the second series of Top of the Lake and in the miniseries Inhumans.^[3] They played Abby Hammond in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet from 2017 to 2019,^{[citation needed]} and has portrayed Van Palmer in Yellowjackets since 2021.^{[citation needed]}

Hewson plays a lead role as detective Nell Buchanan, opposite Michael Dorman, in the Australian crime drama series Treasure & Dirt, made for ABC Television and the BBC,^[12] and premiering in Australia on 19 July 2026.^[13]

Around 2012, Hewson came out as non-binary at age 16.^[1] They are gay and use they/them pronouns.^[1][14] In 2020, Hewson received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for their LGBT+ advocacy.^[15] In 2023, Hewson underwent gender affirming surgery, after years of considering it, after which they said they felt much happier.^[16]