Take 5 with Pia Miranda

Pia Miranda is joy personified.

From her first TV gig on Neighbours, where her character Karen dated Toadie and made a dramatic final exit from the show holding a pavlova, to her breakthrough turn as Josie in Looking for Alibrandi, she has been one of Australia's most beloved screen actors for 25 years. But it's her second act that's surprised everyone, including herself: winning Australian Survivor in a unanimous vote, singing in a thong costume (the footwear kind) on The Masked Singer, and now co-hosting ABC TV's Recipe of the Year.

Growing up Irish-Italian Australian in Melbourne, Pia trained as a ballet dancer and dreamed of being Judy Garland. She studied performance art at university, imagined a future in avant-garde dance, and instead became the unofficial ambassador for a generation's coming-of-age experience. Looking for Alibrandi wasn't just a film, it became a cultural touchstone.

Her north star is simple: if something brings joy, she says yes. She is warm, funny, and completely herself, a quality she credits, in part, to an encounter with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on Melbourne's Chapel Street in 1995.

Pia Miranda's 'joie de vivre' songs:

• Pulp - 'This is Hardcore'
• Judy Garland - 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'
• R.E.M. - 'It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)'
• Cat Stevens - 'Miles from Nowhere'
• Umberto Tozzi - 'Gloria'

00:00 Introduction: Pia Miranda, Joy Personified

01:15 Saying Yes: "Something Scares Me, But I'll Do It Anyway"

04:12 First Song: Pulp, 'This is Hardcore'

04:26 Jarvis Cocker: The Hall Pass and a Life-Changing Live Show

09:51 1998: CDs, Share Houses and Peak '90s

10:42 Neighbours: Karen, Toadie and the Pavlova Exit

14:14 Looking for Alibrandi: "We're Really Good in That"

19:34 Second Song: Judy Garland, 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'

19:55 The Wizard of Oz: "It's Pia's Night"

24:20 Recipe of the Year: The CWA and the Joy of Food

28:44 Third Song: R.E.M., 'It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)'

29:04 Free Tickets and Chapel Street: When R.E.M. Came to Town

34:47 Australian Survivor: "I Actually Won"

40:13 The Masked Singer: Playing Thong

42:45 Fourth Song: Cat Stevens, 'Miles from Nowhere'

42:57 Freedom and Travel: The Walkman Dream

48:30 Origin Odyssey: Italian Identity and "Cousins Everywhere"

53:53 Final Song: Umberto Tozzi, 'Gloria'

56:53 Zan's Wrap-Up: 20 Years of Take 5

Watch Recipe of the Year on ABC iview: