SMALL TOWN. BIG DREAMS. ABSOLUTE MAYHEM. The crown is up for grabs in bold new SBS Original, Miss Sultanah

SMALL TOWN. BIG DREAMS. ABSOLUTE MAYHEM. The crown is up for grabs in bold new SBS Original, Miss Sultanah

5 November, 2026

Media releases

A small-town beauty pageant. Two feuding sisters. What could go wrong?

New SBS Original Miss Sultanah is a sharp, glitter-soaked comedy that turns the traditional beauty pageant on its head and puts disability, family and ambition centre stage.

The six-part series premieres as a boxset on Thursday 3 December on SBS On Demand and at 8:30pm on SBS2, coinciding with International Day of People with Disability.

Created and written by Artemis Mu oz, Rhian Wilson Ruge and Alistair Baldwin, Miss Sultanah stars Crystal Nguyen (Erotic Stories, Eddie's Lil' Homies, Plum), Kristie Nguy (Scrublands), Dilruk Jayasinha (Utopia) and Bridie McKim (Bump, The Heights, Irreverent). Directed by Alistair Baldwin and Hannah Ngo, the series is produced by Molly O'Connor (Sweet Milk Lake) and Executive Produced by Hannah Ngo (Leviticus, Latecomers, Iggy & Ace).

Miss Sultanah follows sisters Grace (Crystal Nguyen) and Nikki (Kristie Nguy) as they attempt to save their late mother's cherished beauty pageant by transforming it into their regional town's first disabled-only competition.

Ten months after their mother's sudden death, Grace and Nikki find themselves at odds over the future of the Miss Sultanah Beauty Pageant. When an embarrassing public incident threatens the event's future, pageant devotee Nikki strikes a deal with image-conscious local Councillor Cook (Dilruk Jayasinha) to keep it alive. Her solution: make this year's competition exclusively for people living with disability and recruit her outspoken sister Grace to help run it.

The trouble is, Grace doesn't know the full story nor is she willing to share her real reason for agreeing to Nikki's plan.

What follows is a hilarious, heartfelt and often chaotic collision of grief, sibling rivalry, ambition and community spirit, as the sisters navigate ableism, family expectations, and a determined group of contestants all vying to become Miss Sultanah.

Darkly funny and unapologetically bold, Miss Sultanah challenges assumptions about beauty, care and independence while celebrating people living with disabilities as complex, messy, ambitious and entirely human.

The series represents a significant milestone for Australian screen storytelling, with its creators, writers and most of the cast living with visible and non-visible disabilities. Miss Sultanah embraces comedy, conflict and spectacle to tell a story about belonging, identity and the roles we inherit from our families.

Miss Sultanah is the latest SBS series commissioned from the Digital Originals initiative with Screen Australia and NITV, aimed at developing exciting and innovative short-form drama projects to premiere on SBS platforms, and designed to support screen creatives currently under-represented in the sector. It is the same program that produced the critically acclaimed and Logie Award winning Homebodies.

Co-Creator, Set-Up Director and Co-Writer, Alistair Baldwin said: As a gay guy with muscular dystrophy, forcing some of Australia's finest disabled actors into some of Australia's gaudiest sequined gowns is to put it bluntly what I was born to do. Miss Sultanah is a loving celebration of the pageant world's kitschy charm and a wry satire of the divisive history beauty pageants share with Australia's disabled community. It's a series with something for everything: comedy, sabotage, sisterhood, grief, and some stuff with hair I didn't even realise was possible. More than that, it's proof that meaningful disability representation and accessible production practices aren't as out of reach as many claim.

Producer, Molly O'Connor said: We are so proud Miss Sultanah is joining the esteemed ranks of Digital Originals series, and we cannot wait for Australian audiences to witness the glitz, glam and competition chaos of this small-town pageant.

This show is the result of the true authorship, genuine collaboration and sheer talent of the team behind it - of co-creators and writers Artemis Mu oz, Rhian Wilson Ruge and Alistair Baldwin, of Alistair and Hannah Ngo who brought the series to life as directors. And of course, our all-star cast and absurdly talented crew.

The series wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support of SBS, as well as Screen Australia and VicScreen.

SBS Commissioning Editor, Digital Originals Zaina Ahmed said: We are so pleased to add Miss Sultanah to the beloved canon of audacious, irreverent Australian comedies. Whether you see yourself in Grace, Nikki, or one of the four other inimitable contestants gunning for the crown, the desire to be seen and celebrated on your own terms is universally resonant.

We're proud to have championed that ethos both on screen and behind the camera; crafting a story about disability and visibility with authentic voices in the driver's seat. It's groundbreaking work only made possible by the Digital Originals program.

Screen Australia Director of Narrative Content Louise Gough said: From the outset, Artemis Mu oz, Rhian Wilson Ruge and Alistair Baldwin set out to tell a gutsy story full of heart, humour and sequins. Through Digital Originals, it has been a joy to see the team behind Miss Sultanah realise their creative ambition into a vibrant series inspired by the creators' lived experiences. Sincere, funny and deeply human, this bold and layered story, nurtured to life by directors Alistair Baldwin and Hannah Ngo, is one that audiences in Australia and around the world will connect with.

Miss Sultanah is a Float Films production for the SBS. Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with SBS. Produced with the assistance of VicScreen.

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LINK:	https://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/2026/11/06/small-town-big-dreams-absolu...
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