Peta Toppano

Peita Margaret Toppano (born 1951)^[1][2] known as Peta Toppano is an English-born Australian former actress, singer and dancer. She is most widely known for her roles in television soap opera's including The Young Doctors as Dr. Gail Henderson, Prisoner, as Karen Travers, Return to Eden as Jilly Stewart, Heartbeak High as Stella Ioannou and briefly Home and Away as Helen Poulos.

Toppano was born in Finsbury Park, London, England in 1951,^[2] and grew up in Cammeray, New South Wales. She is the daughter of Enzo Toppano, a child performer and musician of Italian descent^[2] and Margaret Joan "Peggy" (nee Mortimer) (1927-2003), an Australian vaudevillian, singer, dancer, actress, composer and lyricist, who married in 1950.^[2] She has two younger brothers, Lorenzo and Dean.

At 16, Toppano won a ballet scholarship to study in Cannes, Southern France. She returned to Australia to study drama at the Ensemble Theatre under director Hayes Gordon and. appeared in a J.C. Williamson production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Toppano's television credits include Lena in Piccolo Mondo for SBS, in Prisoner, as original character Karen Travers (a role created for her by producer/writer Reg Watson); in All the Rivers Run, as Eunice Pyke; and in Fields of Fire, as Gina Agostini. Other appearances include Heartbreak High as Stella on Network Ten and in Bordertown for ABC Television as Diomira.

She also appeared in A Country Practice, G.P., E Street and The Flying Doctors. She played Kate in the ABC miniseries The Paper Man with Oliver Tobias, John Bach and Rebecca Gilling (her co-star from Return to Eden), and starred with John Waters and Cybill Shepherd in the 1991 miniseries Which Way Home. Toppano played a recast Jilly Stewart in Return to Eden and starred in Home and Away as Helen Poulos.^[3][4]

Film credits include Seeing Red, Harbour Beat and Echoes of Paradise, directed by Phillip Noyce. Toppano was nominated for an AFI Award for her work in Street Hero, directed by Michael Pattinson with Vince Colosimo. Other nominations include The Sydney Theatre Critic's Award for her performance in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. Toppano received two Logie nominations for her work in Fields of Fire as Gina Agostini, and Uke in Water Under the Bridge.

Toppano she played Juanita in Sue Woolf’s multi-award-winning novel Leaning Towards Infinity in 1997, adapted for stage at the Ensemble Theatre.^[where?]

While living in Perth, Toppano played Coral and later Gwen in Michael Gow’s Away, Ruth in Louis Nowra’s Così for the Black Swan Theatre Company and Blood Moon for Theatre West.

She starred in a one-woman play written by Heather Nimmo, directed by Leith Taylor called One Small Step. Toppano played Countess De Lage in The Women by Clare Boothe Luce with students from Theatre Nepean, directed by Mary-Ann Gifford.

She played Beth in Merrily We Roll Along for the Sydney Theatre Company.2025

Toppano played Fantine in Les Misérables for the Cameron Mackintosh organisation in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, Diana Morales in A Chorus Line for two years in Sydney and Melbourne. She played Sonia in They're Playing Our Song in the UK, and celebrated her 21st birthday in Godspell.

She played Claudia in the musical Nine, Eliza Doolittle (with Stuart Wagstaff) in My Fair Lady, Monica in I Love My Wife, Roberta in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Leonarda in Love and Magic in Mama's Kitchen at the Belvoir St Theatre directed by Teresa Crea.

Toppano was married aged 18 to musician Peter O'Toole, and to her Prisoner co-star Barry Quin (who portrayed Dr. Greg Miller) from 1979 to 1989, and subsequently TV executive and billionaire business mogul Kerry Stokes.

Toppana suffered from cancer in 1996 and had to undergo a hysterectomy^[1]

In 2005, now semi-retired from show-business she revealed she was working a regular $17 an hour job at David Jones at the china and crystal counter, she retired in 2009 but still works behind the scene's in community theatre.^[1]

^[5]

• Official website
• Peta Toppano at IMDb