Listed: The 25 South Australians to watch in 2025 including Chloe Grayling, Rylee Cooper and Dyson Sharp
A dating influencer, next gen politicians and a rapper with a big break, you may not know their names yet but these South Australians are set for big things.
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There are many South Australians who have gone on to become household names across the world — astronaut Andy Thomas, actor Tereasa Palmer and scientist Mark Oliphant.
But before they became the names everyone knew, they were people on the rise in their respective industries.
If you want to know who is set to become the next industry superpower on the global stage look no further.
These 25 South Aussies are on the precipice of something very grand and they’re the people you need to watch in 2025.
Rylee Cooper
Dating influencer
Rylee Cooper uses her huge online following to create fun and flirty offline connections for her Adelaide peers.
“I think it’s a lost art, meeting people organically,” said the 25-year-old, who hosts wildly popular events for “yappers, people who want more friends, people looking for someone sexy, people looking for something new, people new to Adelaide, bored people and the LGBTIQ community” that sell out in minutes.
“We’ve spent too long relying too heavily on online connection because it’s too scary, too difficult or just seems so much more complicated or intimidating to catch up in person.
“These events are all about getting people to communicate with others … and practise talking to other people. I love meeting people … and taking the aspects of my personality, which is talking and being extroverted, and just using them so that other people connect to each other. It’s wonderful, it just resonates with so much joy.”
Kicking off her Instagram page in 2021 when she was studying journalism at university, Cooper has spent the past three years building up nearly 100,000 followers for her Date Night Adelaide profiles on Instagram and TikTok.
She has now left her day job in marketing and social media editing to concentrate full time on her burgeoning business.
Her events are proving to be a big hit, with last month’s date night at Yellow Matter Brewery on Marion Rd selling out in just 20 minutes.
“All the tickets were in carts in the first two minutes and it had sold out in 20,” said Cooper, who has been in a relationship for much of the year.
“We had 90 people turn up. It’s called Date Night Adelaide but it’s not necessary to make romantic connections. It’s for people who want to make friends and people who are into the same things and want to hang out as well as those who want to date.
“It’s all taking off. People love the opportunity to meet other people.”
At the moment, Cooper hosts two events a month. Nights out at Adelaide bars or restaurants, run clubs and quiz nights are all on that agenda.
But she is expanding her horizons in 2025, with plans to add special “activations” at key Adelaide venues using inspiration she has drawn from trips overseas and interstate.
“I’ve got lots of plans for the new year,” she said.
“I think Adelaide gets a bad rap for not having enough cool things to do here. We have big things at certain times of the year but we need more on a day-to-day basis and the best way to do that is to bring in cool things, which is what I hope these activations will be.
“I think Adelaide is such a cool place to live, I want people to see Adelaide the way I see it.”
On top of her events, Cooper also uses her Date Night Adelaide page to explore the city’s dating options, taste-testing exciting new cafes, restaurants and wine bars and exploring activities like pottery making, picnicking with Highland cows in the Adelaide Hills and DIY terrariums.
“I feel very privileged. I’m very grateful and I’m very aware of how much privilege there is being able to experience so many different things through the platform,” she said.
“And I’m always so, so grateful. It’s incredibly humbling and heartwarming to be able to do so many things so often.”
Aleksiah
Singer, songwriter
If you’re a Phoebe Bridgers or Olivia Rodrigo fan, let us introduce you to your new favourite artist, Adelaide’s own indie pop princess, Aleksiah.
Her dreamy vocals and poetic lyrics make the perfect combination for her songs that explore coming of age and romance.
Since the release of her debut single Fern two years ago, she’s been turning heads across the country, sharing the stage with the likes of Lime Cordiale and fellow Adelaide rockers Teenage Joans.
Aleksiah launched her debut EP, Who Are You When You’re Not Performing?, in May with her recent single, Batsh*t, garnering tens of thousands of listens since its release in October.
Her rise hasn’t gone unrecognised with the 24-year-old taking home four gongs at the SA Music Awards last month, winning best new artist, best solo artist, most popular pop artist, and the Emily Burrows Award.
Oliver Douglas
Academic and future politician
Oliver Douglas is studying at Oxford University as the state’s Rhodes Scholar.
It is the latest achievement of the already accomplished 24-year-old, who is also a lieutenant in the Australian Army, an honours graduate in history and even once a world-ranking tennis player.
Douglas will continue his studies at Oxford, looking at British history from 1850 onwards to see what challenges democracy has faced since that time and how it coped.
He wants to restore faith in democracy. No easy feat at this point in time when trust in politicians and political institutions have arguably never been at a lower ebb.
“I think one of the things that I find concerning as a young individual is trust in government is generally at record lows,’’ Douglas said.
“And yet we live in a time where we’re facing enormous complex challenges, climate crisis, wealth inequality, national security, geopolitical instability in our in our region.’’
Douglas said entering politics could be an option in the future and he has already been described by one party elder as the “hope of the side’’.
J-MILLA
Hip-hop artist
MILLA – Aboriginal rap artist Jacob Nichaloff — has graced some big stages in 2024, including capping it off with a career-high appearance in the Vailo Adelaide 500 After Race Concert Series.
The Adelaide-based Marranunggu rapper, who is getting married this summer to social media influencer Poppy Radbone, is hitting a high note in his skyrocketing career.
His latest single, Boomerang, has 23,000 views on YouTube.
The former Scotch College student grew up in Darwin but lives in Adelaide with Radbone and their two children, Blossom, 2, and Zebedee, who’s nearly one.
They share their lives together on TikTok under the handle @popsandjay.
Lauren Frew
Thunderbirds netballer
Lauren Frew made her impressive debut in 2024, becoming a vital, goal-smashing cog in the Thunderbirds’ premiership-winning machine and picking up player of the match in their stunning semi-final victory over the Melbourne Vixens.
The 188cm-tall goal attack — who came up through the Netball SA ranks with local titans Matrix — also impressed selectors for Australia’s Fast5 team and competed in the international competition in New Zealand in November.
The 22-year-old has re-signed with the Thunderbirds for 2025 and promises to be one to watch in their premiership-defending season alongside her former Matrics teammate and premier goal-shooter Lucy Austin.
Off the court, Frew, who captained Mercedes College’s A1 netball team in 2019, is studying law and commerce at Adelaide University.
Rahima Wahidi
Lawyer
The recipient of last year’s Law Society of SA’s Emerging Lawyer of the Year Award, Rahima Wahidi is definitely one to keep an eye on.
Having arrived in Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan when she was only 11, Wahidi had never attended school.
But she eventually graduated law in 2018.
Now she is a solicitor at the Northern Community Legal Service (NCLS), a not-for-profit organisation providing legal assistance to underprivileged and vulnerable people.
In particular, her work focuses on victims of domestic violence, refugees and she also helps vulnerable clients in family law matters.
Beyond her primary role, Wahidi is also deeply passionate about assisting refugees, drawing from her personal experience, coming to Australia in 2005.
She offers advice and representation in immigration matters, helping individuals on temporary refugee visas secure permanent residency.
Wahidi has also developed outreach services with refugee organisations including a service she started in June 2024 through local government to provide generalist law services.
Kane Parker
Model
From Murray Bridge to the catwalks of Europe — 16-year-old Kane Parker has made a meteoric leap in 2024.
The Murray Bridge High School student, who jokes that he’s from the “middle of Woop Woop” and is studying Year 12 remotely this year, after making his debut for Prada at Milan Fashion Week in the middle of 2024 and going on to spend three months in Europe.
His striking looks and red corkscrew curls are expected to command up to $2000 a day.
But earlier last year, as he juggled his emerging modelling career, he held down a part-time gig at the Murray Bridge’s Bridgeport Hotel.
“I’ve had a few people recognise me and I don’t really like it because I’m supposed to be working,” he told The Advertiser’s SA Weekend magazine.
Mia Handshin
Podcast host
Once a celebrated political candidate, columnist and girl about town, Mia Handshin’s star burned bright in the early 2000s before she vanished from the public scene.
Nearly 20 years later, the 46-year-old single mum-of-three is making her comeback to public life with her podcast, the Oyster Sisters.
A collaboration with her friends, former Australian of the Year and body positivity activist Taryn Brumfitt and speaker and coach Dr Gemma Munro, the podcast embraces female empowerment.
Handshin — who was a columnist for The Advertiser at the tender age of 19 — said she felt “compelled to continue using my voice creatively”.
The podcast offers access to motivational content as well as networking opportunities and coaching support.
Matilda Scholz
Port Adelaide’s rising AFLW star
When it comes to rising young stars, none is shining more brightly than Matilda Scholz.
Taking out the 2024 Telstra AFLW Rising Star after her incredible second season in the competition, the Port Adelaide ruck is leaving no one in doubt she is heading for super-stardom.
Secured during the 2023 priority signing period, she’s been described as a “genuine ruck that possesses high athleticism and mobility” and “one of the more damaging rucks in the competition”.
Scholz earned her Rising Star nomination after the Week 7 win over Collingwood, in which the 189cm ruck took what was deemed the 2024 Virgin Mark of the Year, earning herself $50,000 and two million Velocity Frequent Flyer points.
She is the second Port Adelaide player in three seasons to be named the competition’s Rising Star, following Hannah Ewings in the club’s first AFLW season in 2022.
Scholz, whose younger sister Poppy was taken by Carlton at pick six in the recent AFLW National Draft, comes from an elite sporting pedigree, with mum Peta Squire a former Australian netballer and Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
Beyond last year’s coveted rising star gong, her honours to date include: Best First Year Player (2023); Third Best & Fairest (2023); 22under22 extended squad (2023, 2024); all-Australian nominee (2024); Mark of the Year (2024).
Lilla Berry
Multi-disciplinary screen creative and arts worker
Lilla Berry is the future of South Australian film.
A Yankunytjatjara artist and award-nominated film producer, she was the winner of the Frank Ford Memorial Young Achiever Award at the 2024 Ruby Awards.
Since starting her career in the screen industry six years ago, she has cemented herself as a rising star.
Her first film, ABC documentary short Deadly Family Portraits was produced alongside her director sister Pearl and nominated for Best Documentary at the 2021 South Australian Screen Awards (SASAs).
Berry teamed up with her sister again the following year to co-produce SBS documentary Black Empire about First Nations rapper Jimblah and his fight against prejudice, racism, and exploitation within the Australian music industry.
That same year, she won the South Australian Screen Awards Emerging Producer Award, and the Collaboration and mentorship residency at The Mill.
Last year, she was selected for the third round of the SAFC’s Film Lab: New Voices program and one of seven writers chosen for the SAFC’s First Nations Short Film Program.
Outside of film, she is dedicated to providing artistic opportunities for young First Nations creatives through her role as First Nations Programs manager at Carclew.
Panagiotis Kikianis
Adelaide United defender
Adelaide United doesn’t have the budget of some of the bigger A-League clubs on the east coast, so has had to take a more creative approach to finding quality players.
One of the outcomes has been to develop, then sell, its younger players.
Think players such as Nestory Irankunda who lit up the A-League before being sold for many millions to German giants Bayern Munich, or goalkeeper Joe Gauci who headed to English club Aston Villa.
There are now high hopes for 19-year-old defender Panagiotis Kikianis.
Earlier this year, the Reds signed up Kikianis to a five-year deal. It is the longest contract offered to a player in A-League history.
In announcing the deal, Reds’ coach Carl Veart called Kikianis an “exceptional talent with immense potential’’.
“His dedication, talent, and positive attitude make him an integral part of our squad at such a young age.”
Kikianis started playing football with Fulham United under-7s before playing for West Adelaide as a junior, then heading through the state’s development program and joining the Reds.
Selina Nikoloudakis
Specialist family lawyer and mentor
After rising through the ranks at two major Adelaide law firms, specialist family lawyer Selina Nikoloudakis will start the new year in her own, newly-created firm.
Stepping out on her own in suburban Prospect is a big move for the former Mellor Olsson senior associate and, more recently, partner at Andersons Solicitors.
But Nikoloudakis said “after over 15 years of practising as a specialist family lawyer, I am excited to announce … I have opened the doors to my law firm Divorce Legal”.
She is one of just half a dozen formally-accredited family law specialists in the state, practising solely in family law and is also a recognised collaboratively-trained practitioner.
Away from clients, case files and the courtroom, she lectures in family law and is a growing influence as a mentor to young lawyers in Adelaide and interstate.
Nikoloudakis has previously told this masthead she remains passionate about her chosen area of law she describes as “constantly evolving”.
“I have always been a people’s person and committed to helping others navigate challenging situations … family law is almost always emotionally-charged and a separation can have a devastating and long-lasting impact on clients and their children,” she says.
“I am able to genuinely help people when they need it most.”
Nikoloudakis was this year recommended by the Doyles Guide — a leading directory for the best lawyers, barristers and firms — in the “parenting law” space.
Amelia Griffin
My Mind Matters founder and speech pathologist
Having begun her career as a speech therapist with HeadStart, Amelia Griffin has since been inspired to launch her own app which helps people with autism and the elderly communicate.
Griffin developed her app — My Mind Matters — after she was volunteering at Eldercare and an elderly woman said “you shouldn’t bother with me, my mind doesn’t matter”.
Unable to forget that woman, she sprung into action and developed the app which continues to impact anyone who struggles with communication.
As it grows Griffin will continue to have an impact in the speech space, making her someone to watch in 2025.
Dyson Sharp
AFL young gun
Tipped to be first Croweater taken at next year’s AFL draft, the excited buzz around this superstar 17-year-old — a Central District Barossa Valley product — has been building for more than 12 months.
At 16, he captained his state side and cemented himself as the best footballer for his age in Australia, taking out the prized Kevin Sheehan Medal at the 2023 AFL under-16 national championships.
Back then the powerful, 188cm, 85kg midfielder averaged 27 disposals, including 15 contested, seven clearances, seven score involvements, six tackles and 158 SuperCoach points in SA’s three games to join an exclusive group of Croweaters to claim the under-16 competition’s highest individual honour.
Fast forward 12 months and the strongly-built, 188cm-tall midfielder featured in the Bulldogs’ Hostplus SANFL League finals campaign.
Dyson Sharp has previously told this masthead that he models his game on Carlton Brownlow Medallist Patrick Cripps and Western Bulldogs superstar Marcus Bontempelli.
“I try to use my size to my advantage like Cripps does. I just love the way he attacks the footy so hard and tries to break through packs … and the ‘Bont’ is not only good in the contest but gets to the outside to use his penetrating left-foot with great effect.
That’s something I’m trying to add to my game so that I can become a more complete player,’’ Sharp said.
And it shows.
Alexia Spyridonidis
Founder of Sax marketing agency
Alexia Spyridonidis has spent the last several years creating content for prominent brands and recently has decided to launch her own marketing agency — Sax.
In the final stages of her fashion marketing degree and with a Certificate II in Makeup and Skincare already completed Spyridonidis developed Sax in August 2023.
In that short time she has already worked with brands such as F45, Bickfords, Zink and SkyCity with plans to continue.
With services in creative marketing, editorial styling, media relations and publicity, social media and events there isn’t much Spyridonidis can’t do.
She has spent 2024 growing Sax, speaking on podcasts and on panels and working hard.
Continuing to snag clients and grow her agency, Spyridonidis will be one to watch in the marketing and media landscape in 2025.
Letisha Ackland
Executive producer, production manager and founder of Balya Productions
Letisha Ackland is shaking up the performing arts industry across Australia and beyond.
A proud Gugada (Kokatha), Wirangu and Mirning woman hailing from Ceduna, she is the visionary behind Balya Productions.
After a decade of working as a freelancer for festivals such as the Adelaide Fringe, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival and Groovin The Moo, she established Balya Productions in 2019.
As a 100 per cent Aboriginal owned and operated production company, Balya, which means ‘good’ in Kokatha, encapsulates her vision to create positive change by connecting pathways, performance and employment opportunities for First Nations peoples, community and industry.
Her success has only continued with Ackland selected as stage manager for the 2023 National Indigenous Music Awards on Larrakia country in Darwin.
She also successfully debuted her own community festival ‘Yabaardu’ in Ceduna with headline act King Stingray last year.
Last year she was named Person of the Year at the 2024 NAIDOC SA Awards.
But her talents don’t just lie within event production as she’s also a talented SANFLW footballer and has dominated in the Adelaide Footy League for a number of seasons.
Tom Oswald
Young cafe owner “gone viral”
If you need inspiration as the new year rolls around, look no further than 19-year-old aspiring Adelaide entrepreneur Tom Oswald.
Armed with an endearing can-do-attitude — and massive social media following — he is out to prove dreams can become reality.
Fresh out of high school in 2023, he poured his life savings of $1500 to start his pop-up cafe Homeboy at tourism hotspot Hahndorf, supported by The Paint Box and Thiele’s Shop.
When it failed to attract one customer, he started documenting his story — and cafe dreams — on social media and interest in him and his enterprise quickly spiralled.
He now has almost 700,000 loyal followers on social media — nearly 349,000 on Instagram, more than 257,000 on TikTok and 92,000 on Facebook — and his legion of fans is growing, both in store and online.
He’s now opened a second cafe, with the help of Renew Adelaide, in the city on North Tce, winning hearts as he shared all aspects of it from construction, to taste-testing sandwich combinations and even his dad helping out in the new premise’s garden.
“I’m so excited to launch ‘SZN2’ of Homeboy in the CBD … I want to make sure it’s perfect for this location,” he said.
And so far, his fans are loving it, leaving comments such as “just a chill guy starting his own business” and “his is the definition of you can do anything you put your mind to regardless of age. Good job bro.”
Aaleya Turner
Rising netball star
After two years sidelined with an Achilles injury, Kaurna netballer Aaleya Turner made her inspirational return to the court in 2025.
The talented centre and wing defence has wasted no time carving a name out for herself, being selected to represent Australia in the inaugural Black Swans First Nations team in April.
Less than a month later, she earned her spot in the Adelaide Thunderbirds Futures squad in the inaugural Super Netball Reserves.
To top it all off, Turner also made her Premier League debut with the Matrics Netball Club.
With aspirations to one day don the green and gold and play for the Australian Diamonds, the sky’s the limit for the talented athlete.
Off the court, Turner studies paramedic science at Flinders University and works as a cultural officer with Southern Cultural Immersion.
Zac Watts
Real estate agent at Noakes Nickolas
Zac Watts has taken out the SA Metro Residential Sales Agent of the Year two years running at the REISA awards, making him a real estate agent to watch in 2025.
In the last 12 months Watts has sold 82 properties — 57 as lead agent and 25 as secondary agent — for a median sold price of $985,000.
The median number of days his properties stay advertised before selling is just 16.
A property adviser at Noakes Nickolas, an experienced boutique real estate agency, Watts has previously worked as a sales consultant at Harris Real Estate at and a business systems operator at LJ Hooker in Alice Springs.
Gracie Greenrod and Immi Beattie
Founders of theatre company, Funk Soul Productions
Talented theatre-loving friends Immi Beattie and Gracie Greenrod are using their passion for performance to inspire other South Australians to embrace timeless stage classics — and winning plenty of applause.
“As young people ourselves, we understand the need for challenging the perception of modern theatre, including making it more engaging and accessible in a world in which interest in theatre sadly appears to be slowly declining,” the 2022 school-leavers and Westminster old scholars said.
The concept for the theatre company was imagined during their final-year senior drama classes.
“We collectively decided that we wanted to do one last show together after we graduated,” Greenrod, 19, a media and communications student, said.
With the help of school mentors they registered to be part of the 2023 Adelaide Fringe,
“producing and selling out an over 200-seat show”.
The company has been expanding since and is now readying for its “biggest show yet” – the SA premiere of StarKid Productions’ The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals.
“We feel incredibly excited to have secured the rights to this show – bringing their hilarious horror-comedy production to audiences in Adelaide for the very first time,” Beattie, 20, who is studying psychological science and neuroscience, said.
Check them out at the Goodwood Theatre & Studios from January 31 to February 8.
Jack Batty
Politician
There are two ways to look at the prospect of being a young MP in today’s state Liberal Party.
The more pessimistic view is that being a newbie MP in a party that has spent 18 of the last 22 years in opposition is likely to lead to a certain frustration.
On the other being a young, talented MP at the moment means there is plenty of potential for promotion if you show a little ambition and gumption.
Batty is 34 and has recently been promoted to Police spokesman in the new Vincent Tarzia regime.
He represents the wealth eastern suburbs seat of Bragg, elected in 2022 after former deputy premier Vickie Chapman stood down.
In his first speech to parliament, Batty noted the shoes he was filling.
“The electorate was first established in 1970 and has been represented exclusively by premiers and deputy premiers,’’ he said.
Apart from Chapman, Bragg MPs include former premier David Tonkin and ex-deputy premier Graham Ingerson.
Batty attended up-market private schools St Ignatius and Scotch College before studying law and economics at Adelaide Uni.
He worked as a commercial lawyer in Adelaide before moving to London to work in the Australia High Commission.
He lists former High Commissioner, and Liberal Federal Attorney-General George Brandis as a mentor.
Batty is married to Charlotte, daughter of former newsreader Georgina McGuinness.
Rigby Barnes
Entrepreneur and former SANFL player
If you’re a fan of a cheeky seltzer, chances are you’ve already come across ex-SANFL player Rigby Barnes’ business, Gangurru Beverages.
His no-sugar, low-calorie seltzers showcase native ingredients and hit the market in 2023 after completing his MBA at the University of Adelaide.
The business began as an enterprise project for his Executive MBA after he identified a gap in the market.
A proud Guugu Yimithirr and Birri Gubba man, the name of his business is inspired by the word ‘kangaroo’ which originates from the Guggu Yimithirr word ‘gangurru.’
Each can also features artwork by his brother Rohan ‘Mpetyane’ Carmody as another nod to his culture.
Now, his seltzer is stocked in 45 retailers across SA and the NT, including various BWS and Dan Murphey’s stores.
He also has his own clothing business, Gangurru Apparel.
Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese
Film directors
The directorial duo won feature fiction audience award winner for their film Lesbian Space Princess at the Adelaide Film Festival this year.
Even more impressively it was the first full-length animated feature to be made in SA.
It’s a story that had to be told. Introverted space princess Saira is dumped by her Bounty Hunter girlfriend Kiki for being too needy.
But when Kiki is kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens, Saira springs into action to save her.
The film was backed by the SA Film Corp’s Film Lab: New Voices program, which offers up to $600,000 in funding plus a mentor program to emerging filmmakers.
The cast includes legendary Australian actor Richard Roxburgh and Drag Race Australia contestant Kween Kong.
Emma Hough Hobbs was the animator of Lesbian Space Princess and has previously made the award-winning short On Film.
Leela Varghese is a filmmaker and TV presenter. Her short film Crush won multiple awards at the prestigious TropFest festival.
The duo are now taking the film on the festival circuit before releasing it in Australia and New Zealand later in the year.
“We’re also developing a slate of new and exciting projects and can’t wait to start writing again both as co-writers and individually,’’ Hough Hobbs said.
Chloe Grayling
TikTok and Instagram influencer and podcaster
Having recently welcomed daughter Violet into the world via a home water birth, Chloe Grayling who shares her life on the Fleurieu Peninsula to her over a million followers will definitely be one to watch in 2025.
Showcasing her romantic life in her 140-year-old cottage with her two highland cows, chickens, dogs and geese and now new baby, Grayling shows followers how to harvest wildflowers, renovate your home and think positively in an often overwhelming online world.
In 2025, with a new addition to her life, her 1.1 million TikTok followers as well as almost 200,000 Instagram followers will want to keep their eyes peeled on what she chooses to share.
James Kitching
Managing director
The 39-year-old James Kitching is building a global sports consultancy from Adelaide as managing director of The FC.
Kitching spent many years overseas, including as head of sports legal services, disciplinary and governance for the Asian Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur and was based in Zurich for two years as director of football regulatory for FIFA.
Came back to Adelaide with his young family during Covid and is still a member of a FIFA board which has oversight on aspects of player transfers.
Kitching was one of the architects of the FIFA clearing house, an independent financial institution created to centrally manage player transfer payments, and ensure clubs at all levels of a player’s development are compensated in accordance with regulations.
He is also an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a board member of Shooting Australia and on a committee of the World Cricketers’ Association looking at the game’s international calendar.
In Adelaide, Kitching is chair of Basketball SA, as well as captain of the prestigious Old Ignatians D Team.
He is also in the final stages of forming of the Adelaide Sports Network, a business networking forum.