Career
Toppano played Diana Morales in A Chorus Line for two years in both Sydney and Melbourne, during the late 1970s. She was still active on the stage 15 years later, playing Fantine in Les Misérables for the Cameron Mackintosh organization.
During 1989 and 1990, she played the part of Kate in the ABC mini-series The Paper Man starring opposite Oliver Tobias, John Bach and Rebecca Gilling. Paper Man was filmed both in Australia and England.
Later, Toppano starred opposite John Waters and Cybil Shepherd in the 1990 Turner made-for-television-movie Which Way Home, filmed in Thailand and New Zealand.
Other film roles include: Harbour Beat for Palm Beach Pictures, Echoes of Paradise directed by Phillip Noyce and starring opposite Wendy Hughes and John Lone, and Seeing Red and Street Hero directed by Michael Pattinson starring opposite Vince Colossimo.
Her most famous television roles include The Young Doctors playing Dr. Gail Henderson, Prisoner (known as Prisoner: Cell Block H outside of Australia) playing Karen Travers, Home & Away playing Helen Poulos, and Return to Eden playing "superbitch" Jilly Stewart.
In 2005, she took time out from show business to moonlight as a shop assistant, wrapping crystal and swiping credit cards, so as to take her mind off personal tragedies such as the death of her mother: "I am just taking some time out and doing some of my favourite things which are being around beautiful objects and talking to people," she said. Toppano sometimes hosts events for her fans, such as a 2010 event at the Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham, England.
Read more about this topic: Peta Toppano
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