MERRIDY EASTMAN is a writer and actress who lives in Sydney with her German husband Tom and their son Henry.

A NIDA graduate, Merridy has performed in a swag of productions for the Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies, as well as the State Theatre Company of SA, and spent several summers leaping about Botanical Gardens across Australia, bringing Shakespeare to the masses. As well as being an ex Play School presenter, Merridy has also had major and minor roles in various telly shows, and for several years was a regular cast member of both Channel Seven series, Always Greener and Packed to the Rafters.

In 2002, Merridy wrote the bestseller There’s A Bear In There (And He Wants Swedish) followed in 2006 by Ridiculous Expectations. Merridy’s third book in the memoir trilogy, How Now Brown Frau (2011), tells the story of her biggest adventure so far, waking up one morning in Bavaria, married, pregnant and without a word of German under her belt. She has also contributed to anthologies including Penguin’s Thanks For the Mammaries (2009) and Pan MacMillan’s Just Between Us (2013) and for five years wrote a regular column for the Wentworth Courier.

As an actress, Merridy has recently performed in Ensemble Theatre’s A History of Falling Things, ABC TV’s Rake, and toured in the hilarious new Australian comedy  The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race!  For her performance in  Hand To God at The Old Fitzroy in Sydney, she won Best Performer in a Supporting Role in an Independent Production at the 2022 Sydney Theatre Awards. 

In 2025 Merridy will be working with Bell Shakespeare, and hopes to FINALLY finish her fourth book – about the discovery that her great-great-grandfather was not a Spanish pirate, but a Worimi man from Paterson, New South Wales.  It’s called I Knew We Weren’t Spanish!