It took quite some effort for actor Jillian Nguyen to impress her parents. Landing a lead role opposite Hugo Weaving and Ryan Kwanten in the coming feature film Loveland didn’t do it; nor did the trailblazing SBS series Hungry Ghosts starring Bryan Brown. It wasn’t until they spied her face on the cover of a Vietnamese language magazine at the Asian grocers that the accolades came.

“Now Mum is completely obsessed,” laughs Nguyen. “She works in a noodle factory and she’s told all her friends about it. Dad too. They’re so happy, because for them it’s a first. Growing up, Mum used to say to me, ‘Jill, white people can be actors. Asian people can’t’.”