After a meteoric rise to fame at 16, Casey became the youngest-ever winner of Australian Idol in 2004. A proud Gumbaynggirr and Dungatti woman and First Nations artist, over the last nineteen years, Donovan has made her mark not only as a musician but also in the areas of stage, screen, presenting and writing. Casey is a multi-award winner & nominee, including an ARIA No #1 Award and Triple Platinum for ‘Listen With Your Heart’ from the Double Platinum Album ‘For You’ and Deadly Awards for Best Album, Best Single and Most Promising New Talent.
Casey has headlined her own Mama Cass Tribute concerts and supported the legendary Cyndi Lauper on her 2011 Australian National Tour.
Under the direction of Rhoda Roberts, in 2009, Casey made her theatrical debut in Miracle In Brisbane for the Brisbane Festival. This was to be the first of many acclaimed theatrical performances thus far in Casey’s career, including The Sapphires (Company B/Black Swan State Theatre Company/2010), As You Like It (Company B/2011), The Flowerchildren (Magnormos/2011, Opera Yarrabah (Opera Australia/2012), RENT (Hayes Theatre/2015), as ‘Killer Queen’ in We Will Rock You (Andrew Pole/Ben Elton/2016) and Chicago as ‘Mamma Morton’ (Frost Jones/2019). Casey’s stage credits have earned her respect from the industry, which has seen her receive a nomination for ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical’ in the Sydney Theatre Awards.
In January 2017, Casey was announced as a cast member of the third series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. After six gruelling weeks in the jungle, Donovan went on to be crowned QUEEN of the Jungle by vote of the Australian Public, her second reality TV win by a public vote winning $100,000 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Casey’s appearance on the hit network 10 series has seen the versatile entertainer win an outpouring of love and support from Australian audiences. Following this Casey performed an incredibly moving cover of the David Bowie song ‘Heroes’ at the 2017 Logie Awards, for which she received a standing ovation and rave reviews from the Entertainment Industry and the general public.
Casey released her highly anticipated EP Off The Grid and Somewhere In Between, which was crowdfunded by her biggest supporters in 2017. Donovan’s new single Lonely was released jumping 60 places overnight in the iTunes single charts to the Top 30; this was followed with a series of live an intimate show around the country to reconnect Casey with music lovers and her biggest supporters.
With growing demand from the Theatre world, in 2019 Casey starred as ‘Mama Morton’ in the Australian revival of the musical Chicago to rave reviews and in November 2019 was invited to participate in Eurovision – Australia Decides performing the original song ‘Proud’ in the national final on February 8, 2021, placing second.
2022 saw Casey return to the stage as a lead in the hit musical 9 TO 5, playing the role of Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda role from the hit movie) with mid show standing ovations for her solo ‘Get Out & Stay Out’. The year also saw Casey and band finally hit the road with the re-scheduled BluesDay tour dates to resounding success.
In 2023 Casey performs as Angelique in the new blockbuster musical theatre production ‘& Juliet’.
