Guests at long tables applaud during the SONARR Awards gala dinner at Machine Hall in Sydney, 15 October 2026. Image: SONARR Awards
Industry Events

Colin Cassidy Takes the Acting Prize at Australia’s First All-Audio Awards. Here’s Every SONARR Winner

Priya Raman · October 20, 2026 · 7 min read

Australia's audio industry now has one awards night for everything you can hear: podcasts, radio, audiobooks and voice-over. At the first SONARR Awards in Sydney, the Performance / Acting Excellence Award went to voice actor and impressionist Colin Cassidy, who beat two audiobook narrators to it.

The gala dinner was held on 15 October at Machine Hall, which the organisers describe as "a 100-year-old former substation in the CBD." Alexei Toliopoulos hosted, guests sat at long tables in black tie, and 33 trophies went out across five pillars: Sound, Narrative, Voice, Impact and Vision.

SONARR, short for Sound and Narrative, bills itself as Australia's first awards program to put all four audio formats under one banner. It arrives after two old fixtures went quiet. Mediaweek reported in June that the Australian Commercial Radio Awards ended in 2025, and the last Australian Podcast Awards was held in 2024.

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