Mary Coustas

Theatre

Coustas' initial claim to fame came from the comedy stage show Wogs Out of Work alongside Nick Giannopoulos, George Kapiniaris and Simon Palomares.

In 2019, Coustas joined the Shooshi Mango boys and Giannopoulos on stage in a show named Fifty Shades of Ethnic.

2024 sees Mary Coustas return to a stage tour with Effie: Up Yourselfness.

Television career

Coustas appeared on the popular television sitcom Acropolis Now, from 1989 until 1992, in the role of Effie Stephanidis.

Since then she has appeared as Effie in other television shows and commercials. Effie also appeared in the interview show Effie, Just Quietly in 2001 and hosted her own short-lived talk show called Greeks on the Roof in 2003.

Coustas played straight dramatic roles in two police series: Skirts in 1990 and Wildside in 1998. Other roles include Grass Roots, The Secret Life of Us and Good Guys Bad Guys. Her voice-over work includes The Magic Pudding, Hercules Returns and Always Greener. She also appeared as a guest on comedy game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation in 2012, and had a guest role in the drama Rake.

In May 2023, it was announced that Coustas would be participating in the twentieth series of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with Aric Yegudkin.

Books and music

In 1992 Effie released a novelty single: a duet with another fictional character, Garry McDonald's Norman Gunston. The recording was their version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Amigos Para Siempre. Coustas's book Effie's Guide to Being Up Yourself was published in 2003.

In her 2013 memoir All I Know: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Life, Coustas looked back over her career, and reflected on the lives and deaths of her father, grandmother and daughter.

She co-starred in two comedic, mock music video entries for Eurovision, "Electronik Supersonik" (2004) and "I Am the Anti-Pope" (2006) starring Australian comedian Santo Cilauro as a pop star character named Zladko “ZLAD!” Vladcik from the fictional eastern European country of Molvanîa. Cilauro, along with Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner, created the “ZLAD!” character to accompany their book, the parody Jetlag Travel Guide to Molvanîa. Cilauro, Sitch and Gleisner would later co-author of similar parody travel guides for Phaic Tăn (in south-east Asia) and San Sombrèro (in Latin America).

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Personal life

In 1964, Coustas was born in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. Her parents in 1960 married in East Melbourne and both originate from Florina. Her father Sterios is from the village of Nymfaio and her mother Theofani (née Efthimiathis) from Mesokampos.

Coustas married George Betsis in 2005. After six years of in vitro fertilisation, their first child was stillborn at 22 weeks. In August 2013, Coustas and her husband announced in an interview with 60 Minutes that she was 22 weeks pregnant and expecting their second child in early December 2013. Their daughter Jamie was born on 28 November 2013.

References

References

1. "Speaker Profile of Mary Coustas".
2. (2019-12-10). "Sooshi Mango - Fifty Shades of Ethnic".
3. (10 July 2003). "AAPT thinks Effie's in touch with her publics". Fairfax.
4. Coustas, Mary. (2003). "Effie's Guide to Being Up Yourself". Mark McLeod.
5. Coustas, Mary. (2013). "All I know: a memoir of love, loss and life". Allen & Unwin.
6. (4 July 2013). "Mary Coustas – ABC Conversations with Richard Fidler". ABC.net.au.
7. "MOLVANIA DISQUALIFIED FROM EUROVISION!". [[Jetlag Travel]].
8. Genevieve Dwyer. (15 April 2016). "13 Times Australia Loved Eurovision Harder Than The Europeans!".
9. "Elektronik Supersonik - Zladko Vladcik {{!}} EarBleed.com".
10. . (26 November 2013). ["Mary Coustas"](http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/11/26/3898185.htm). *ABC Australia*.
11. (2006). "In Her Own Image: Greek-Australian Women Beyond the Stereotypes". Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand).
12. (9 March 2020). "Από το προξενιό στο... Tinder – Η Μαίρη Κούστα μιλά για τις νέες περιπέτειες της 'Εφης' και ανοίγει την καρδιά της".
13. Coustas, Mary. (June 22, 2013). "The children I've never known". Sydney Morning Herald.
14. (1 August 2013). "Mother Mary". ninemsn.
15. Staff Writers. (28 November 2013). "Effie's a mum: Mary Coustas gives birth to baby girl". News Ltd.
16. Rowlands, Letitia. (18 March 2014). "Mary Coustas 'How having a baby changed me'". Fairfax Media.