Peter Cousens is the Artistic Director of the Talent Development Project and in 2019 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to the performing arts and to the community.
A graduate of National Institute of Dramatic Art, he has performed in a vast number of musicals including playing the role of The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on London's West End for 11 months.
As well as major roles in Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, The Fiddler on the Roof, Boojum, Bernstein’s Mass, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, the Mikado, Darlinghurst Nights, Strange Bedfellows, The Hatpin, Company, Aspects of Love, Floyd Collins in Concert.
He has worked extensively with Australia's major performing arts companies starring in Nicholas Nickleby, Hamlet, Chicago, Chinchilla, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, You Never Can Tell, Whose Life is it Anyhow?, The Convicts Opera, Breaker Morant, Camille, The Sentimental Bloke; And on Australian television, in The Divorce, Cliffy, Phryne Fisher, Return to Eden, The Sullivans, Carson's Law, Cop Shop, Skyways, The Young Doctors, Son and Daughters, The Timeless Land and Under Capricorn.
He has recorded five albums - Corner of The Sky, From A Distance, A Life on Earth, A Musical Christmas, The Peter Cousens Collection and he sings the role of Chris on the International Symphonic Recording of Miss Saigon.
Peter directed the feature film “Freedom”, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and William Sadler in the USA and is currently slated to direct the television series Where Is Daniel? which he has also written. He wrote and directed the short film The Right Path, a survival story about the life of Mick Miller and also Victoriana! - “a vaudeville musical delight.”
Peter is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at Central Queensland. In 2018 and 2020 he directed The Mikado and Chess in Malaysia with CQU students and local Malaysian music students under the auspices of the Colombo Plan.
Peter is Patron of Freedom Hub – Rebuilding the lives of people who have experienced human trafficking and slavery within Australian borders.