Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from UNSW and a Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard Law School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She has published extensively on Indigenous legal issues.

An award winning author, Larissa received the 2002 David Unaipon Award and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and her most recent novel, After Story (2021) won the 2022 Voss Literary Prize.

Larissa is also an award-winning filmmaker. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature for After the Apology and the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Direction in Factual Television for Maralinga Tjarutja. In 2025, she received the NSW History Award Digital History Prize for One Mind, One Heart. She has directed and produced multiple documentaries and television projects, including The First Inventors and films such as You Can Go Now.

She currently serves as Chair of the National Library of Australia and Chair of Writing Australia. She is also Chair of the Murrup Foundation, Chair of the National Justice Project, a Council Member of Creative Australia, a trustee of the Australian Museum, and a board member of Sydney Dance Company. She has previously held board positions with Bangarra Dance Theatre (including as Chair), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Festival, Sydney Writers Festival, and the Sydney Community Fund.

Larissa co-authored the Do Better report for the Collingwood Football Club with Lindon Coombes. She chaired the 2011 Review of Indigenous Higher Education and was a member of the 2023 University Accord Panel. In 2025, she was appointed Interim First Nations Commissioner of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

She was named NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2009 and NSW Australian of the Year in 2011. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2020 and received the Human Rights Medal in 2021. Larissa is the long standing host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. She is also a Native Title holder and a member of the Yuwaalaraay Euahlayi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council.