Tuuli Narkle is an Australian stage and screen actor best known for playing Mary in Mystery Road: Origin and AFP Constable Evie Cooper in NCIS: Sydney. She is reported to have been born in 1996, which puts her at around 30 years old in 2026.
Her precise birthday, however, is less certain. Some celebrity-biography websites give 7 August 1996, but that date has not been confirmed by the more authoritative public profiles from organisations such as ABC, NIDA, Opera Australia or Paramount. The safest conclusion is therefore that 1996 is her reported birth year, while her exact date of birth remains publicly unverified.
Beyond the age question, Narkle has built a substantial career across Australian theatre and television, moving from cultural dance and formal dramatic training to an AACTA-winning performance and prominent roles in international television productions.
From rural Western Australia to NIDA
Narkle was born and raised in rural Western Australia. ABC identifies her as a Yued and Wiilman Noongar woman from south-west Western Australia, while professional biographies also record her Finnish heritage.
Performance entered her life through cultural dance before her interests expanded into acting and singing. Opera Australia records that she later entered the acting stream at John Curtin College of the Arts and also trained in dance at Charlesworth Ballet Institute.
One of the formative professional steps in her career came when she was cast as Ruby in Jane Harrison’s stage play Stolen, in a production directed and produced by Leah Purcell. The experience helped steer Narkle toward further professional acting training.
She subsequently auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art, better known as NIDA, one of Australia’s major performing-arts institutions. NIDA lists her as a graduate of its Acting program in 2018.
That combination of cultural performance, formal dance training, theatre experience and conservatory-level acting study provided the foundation for the stage and television work that followed.
The stage work that built her career
Narkle’s professional development did not begin with television. Theatre was central to the first phase of her career.
After graduating from NIDA, she appeared in Winyanboga Yurringa at Belvoir and Black Is the New White at Sydney Theatre Company. Her later stage credits have included productions such as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Cyrano.
She also played Australian tennis champion Evonne Goolagong in Sunshine Super Girl, a theatrical work centred on Goolagong’s life and career.
These roles placed Narkle within a generation of Australian performers moving between established theatre companies and screen productions rather than following a television-only path. Her stage experience also preceded the role that would significantly expand her national profile.
Mystery Road: Origin became her screen breakthrough
Narkle’s most important early screen role came in Mystery Road: Origin, the prequel series within the acclaimed Mystery Road franchise.
She played Mary, the woman who becomes the partner of young detective Jay Swan, played by Mark Coles Smith. The role placed Narkle at the emotional centre of a story examining Jay’s early life as a police officer as well as his relationships, community and identity.
In a 2022 interview with the National Indigenous Times, Narkle discussed the emotional demands of portraying Mary and the wider significance she saw in Indigenous stories and characters being represented on screen.
Her performance received major industry recognition. At the 2022 AACTA Awards, Narkle won Best Lead Actress in a Drama for Mystery Road: Origin.
The award represented an important career milestone. Narkle had already accumulated substantial theatre experience, but Mystery Road: Origin brought that work to a wider television audience and established her as an award-winning screen performer.
The series remained important to her career beyond its first season. She returned as Mary for the second season of Mystery Road: Origin in 2025, again appearing opposite Coles Smith as Jay Swan.
NCIS: Sydney and Territory widened her screen profile
Narkle’s television work expanded considerably after her success in Mystery Road: Origin.
She became part of the principal cast of NCIS: Sydney, playing AFP Constable Evie Cooper. The series extends the long-running American NCIS franchise into Australia, combining Australian Federal Police characters with naval investigators.
Paramount’s series materials continued to list Narkle among the starring cast as the show reached its third season, giving her a sustained role in a production with an international franchise audience.
Her growing screen résumé also includes Territory, Netflix’s Australian drama set around a powerful cattle-station family. Netflix identified Narkle as Keeley Redford when announcing the series’ cast in 2024.
Earlier in her screen career, she appeared in the five-part 2021 comedy All My Friends Are Racist, with Screen Australia listing her among the cast.
Taken together, those projects show a career broadening beyond a single breakthrough performance. Narkle has moved between Indigenous-led Australian storytelling, comedy, large-scale streaming drama and an internationally recognised procedural franchise.
Recognition and continuing relevance in 2026
Narkle’s return to Mystery Road: Origin has kept the role of Mary central to her recent career.
In June 2026, ABC announced that the series had received five nominations for the 2026 Logie Awards, including a Best Lead Actress nomination for Narkle.
That nomination follows her earlier AACTA victory for the same television franchise and underscores the continued importance of Mystery Road: Origin within her body of work.
At the same time, her involvement in NCIS: Sydney has given her an ongoing role outside the Mystery Road universe. The combination means that her current profile is not based only on an earlier award-winning performance: she has continued working across prominent Australian and internationally distributed productions.
Her trajectory is therefore relatively clear. Early performance experience led to formal training and professional theatre; theatre gave way to increasingly substantial screen roles; Mystery Road: Origin brought major recognition; and subsequent projects including NCIS: Sydney and Territory widened her audience.
Final thoughts
Tuuli Narkle is reported to have been born in 1996, making her around 30 years old in 2026, although a reliable primary or authoritative source confirming her exact birthday is not publicly established.
That uncertainty is worth preserving rather than replacing with a date repeatedly circulated by low-authority biography sites. What is much better documented is the career that has made Narkle a notable Australian actor: her Western Australian and Noongar background, 2018 NIDA graduation, extensive theatre work, AACTA-winning turn in Mystery Road: Origin, and later roles in NCIS: Sydney and Territory. With a 2026 Logie nomination adding to that record, her public profile continues to be defined more convincingly by her work than by an unverified birthday.
