LIZA MCLEAN

Liza McLean has worked in the entertainment industry in Australia and overseas for the past twenty years, working for and collaborating with extraordinary Producers, Directors and some of world’s finest actors, singers and performers. In 2005, she formed Tinderbox Productions Pty Ltd and is the sole director. Liza continues to grow her theatrical business, sharing her knowledge and experience where she can and enjoying developing many new works with artists of all genres to create original presentations. She has a passion for the Arts, the relationships she’s developed over the past two decades and secretly is obsessed with excel - specifically her BUDGET!

Tinderbox Productions Theatrical credits include: Arts Centre Melbourne Production of The Space Between (2017) starring Emma Matthews, words and lyrics by Steve Vizard, composed by Paul Grabowski; National Tour of Little Shop Of Horrors (2016) starring Brent Hill & Esther Hannaford; Co-Producer National Tour of Sweet Charity (2015) starring Verity Hunt-Ballard; Australian Producer of the International touring production of The Last Confession (2014) starring David Suchet; Co-Producer The Chichester Festival Theatre Production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (2013) starring Henry Goodman (West End); Executive Producer The Helpmann Awards (2013); Producer The 39 Steps (2008-9) Melbourne and Regional Tours, Sydney Opera House and Hong Kong and Talking Heads (2007) Australian Tour starring Brenda Blethyn & Sigrid Thornton.

In 2008, Liza formed a new company Kay and McLean Productions Pty Ltd (KMP) with Andrew Kay. Kay & McLean most recently produced David Suchet in Poirot & More: A Retrospective touring throughout Australia and New Zealand in 2020, conceived and directed by Liza McLean. In 2015, KMP produced with the Melbourne Theatre Company the international stage debut of North by Northwest and following the Premiere season in Melbourne have produced the original stage play again in Melbourne with ACM in 2016, and in 2017 in Bath UK with Theatre Royal Bath & Toronto with Mirvish. In 2018/19, KMP produced seasons of North by Northwest in Brisbane with QPAC and in Adelaide with AFTC . Other theatrical credits include: Felicity Kendal as Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, Jerry Hall as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate, Tubular Bells ‘For Two’, My First Time starring Sharon Millerchip and Josef Ber, The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo), James Rhodes, Haunted starring Brenda Blethyn and Waiting for Godot starring Ian McKellen. In 2011, Kay & McLean Co-commissioned the international tour and produced the exclusive Sydney Season of The Bridge Project’s Richard III starring Kevin Spacey.

Liza McLean was elected to the board of Live Performance Australia in 2009 and re-elected again in 2011. In 2012/2013, she became an observer to the board as her appointment as 2013 Producer of the 2013 Helpmann Awards, prevented her from retaining her board position. In 2013, she was re-elected to the board of Live Performance Australia and continues as a board member in 2020.

Prior to the COVID-19 Lockdowns in 2020, Liza McLean was appointed as General Manager of the Australian Tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie due to premiere at the Sydney Opera House in July.

In 2017, Liza produced her greatest achievement with the birth of her long-awaited son, Javier Bear Gumbleton McLean who is her inspiration and muse.