Sheila Kennelly

Kennelly arrived from England to Australia with her family, and attended North Sydney Girls High School before training at the Independent Theatre. She started her career in stage plays, from 1958 onward's appearing at such venues as the Old Tote Theatre and Nimrod Theatre Company, before taking a lengthy Arts Council tour of A View from the Bridge, as well as many roles at the Neutral Bay Music Hall[1]

Kennelly has been a staple of the small screen since the late 1960s, working firstly on plays at the ABC and then several television soap opera and comedy relief roles.

She became a household name in soap opera in the Ten Network series Number 96 as a brassy bubbly barmaid, along with her on-screen husband amateur inventor Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall). The duo were conceived as comedy characters and added to the cast of the series a few months after it premiered in 1972. Although her husband's character was later written out of the series in the infamous bomb blast storyline, Norma remained with the series for four and a half years. Both characters appeared briefly in the 1974 film adaptation.

She subsequently went on to appear as Rosa Berlucci, a "cheery wog" in the sitcom Kingswood Country in 1980. She popped up in cameo roles in miniseries throughout the 1980s, and made guest appearances on shows like Glenview High, the children's show Secret Valley, The Flying Doctors, the short-lived Hampton Court and three roles in A Country Practice. In 1987 she was given the role of retired carnival worker Floss McPhee, an original cast member on the seven network series Home and Away, appearing from the pilot episode in January 1988. She remained in the role until being written out the following year. In the 1990s and 2000s she has had roles in Big Sky and All Saints, and has returned in numerous guest appearances in Home and Away, from 2000 until 2008.