Dr Suzie Miller, the internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and author behind the award-winning play Prima Facie, has been named a 2026 QUT Outstanding Alumnus.
The honour was announced at the annual QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards last night (October 29) at the university's Gardens Point campus in Brisbane.
It recognises Dr Miller’s contribution to the arts and her impact on public conversations about justice, power, gender and social change.
A former criminal defence and human rights lawyer, Dr Miller has written more than 20 plays and is best known for Prima Facie, the internationally acclaimed one-woman play that sparked global conversations about consent, sexual assault and the legal system.
Her other notable works include RGB: Of Many, One, The Mathematics of Longing, Inter Alia and Strong is the New Pretty, which premiered at Brisbane Festival in 2026.
Dr Miller completed her PhD at QUT, which she says “ignited” her creative career.
She wrote Prima Facie in 2018 while doing her PhD, with the play premiering in Sydney the following year and then moving to stages around the world, including London’s West End and Broadway NY.
The 2022 London production of the show was nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, winning awards for best new play and best actress for star Jodie Comer. It was nominated for four Tonys winning one for best actress. The National Theatre’s 2025/6 production of Inter Alia transferred to the London West End and is due on Broadway in November 2026. It also was nominated for Oliviers – best play and best actress, winning best actress for Rosamund Pike.
"The success of Prima Facie and the ones that have followed on, RBG and also Inter Alia and others, has been really transformational for me," Dr Miller said.
"I feel like I'm having a conversation with the entire world.
"There's a sense that my voice and the voice of other women matters, and I can actually put women's stories up front and centre within the theatre system."
Reflecting on her time at QUT, Dr Miller said her PhD profoundly influenced both her creative practice and her career.
"My PhD was enlightening for me," she said.
"It was while I was at QUT undertaking my PhD that I learnt to interrogate my own process of writing, my methodology.
“Under the guidance of some incredible supervisors, Professor Sandra Gattenhof and Associate Professor Caroline Heim, I learnt to step back, investigate how I wrote and consequently establish new ways of reaching the core of what I wanted to explore, more efficiently.
"In streamlining my process, I was able to be more rigorous and efficient with my process, the results of which are plays like Prima Facie, Inter Alia, Jail Baby. These plays came while, and after, I undertook my PhD. In many ways the research process ignited my creative career."
Dr Miller said one of her strongest memories of QUT was the encouragement she received to think across disciplines.
"I looked at mathematics and theatre and a story of mathematics through a theatre, lens” she said.
"This was a university that really lent into that possibility and really encouraged me to think across disciplines.
“Because I come from a science, law, and art background, this was intensely liberating to me. I could feel the beauty of combining complex ideas with the magic of how theatre works to illuminate things through embodiment and character.
"To be able to engage all those different ways of thinking, and to be appreciated for that engagement was very exciting for me."
Dr Miller said being recognised by QUT held particular significance.
"Being recognised as an outstanding alumnus at QUT is a great privilege to me," she said.
"I put my heart and soul into my PhD, and was encouraged to take that time to really embed a methodology for making complex ideas around science, law and philosophy accessible through an artistic medium.
"So this award is something of a QUT homecoming because it's a place where I really discovered so much about myself and my craft."
Asked what advice she would give current students and graduates, Dr Miller encouraged them to follow their passions rather than panic about career pathways.
"I often give advice to young people and the one thing I can be especially sure of telling them is ‘when you're leaving university, you don't need to panic, you'll find your way to where you need to be’" she said.
"The best advice is to follow your passion.
"You know in your gut what your passion is. Find a way to use your degree to follow something that you are curious about, excited by and which feeds a need to express yourself.
"Your study and your work life is actually a journey to where that passion is best expressed."
Media contact: QUT Media, media@qut.edu.au
