Seventy-five Australians have been awarded 2026 Churchill Fellowships, with the latest cohort including practitioners working across the arts, education, health, community services, science and technology.

Announced by the Winston Churchill Trust this week, the recipients will travel overseas to study with leading practitioners and organisations in their fields before bringing their findings back to Australia.

Among the cohort are Tasmanian actor, director and broadcaster Jane Longhurst, whose career has encompassed theatre, television and radio; Adelaide writer/director Lily Drummond, whose work has spanned film and the performing arts; and the Brisbane-based conductor Elena Katahanas.

2026 Churchill Fellows Jane Longhurst and Lily Drummond

Longhurst, a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Drama, has worked extensively as an actor and theatre-maker. Her recent work includes The Black Bag Trilogy, a series of solo performances that has included Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days and Franz Xaver Kroetz’s Request Programme. She has also appeared in productions for Blue Cow Theatre and worked as a broadcaster and presenter.

Drummond, an Adelaide-based writer/director with lived experience of disability, has developed work across film and theatre, with a focus on more complex representation of disabled and queer...