‘It’s got me fizzing inside’: Cameron Daddo on being back in the spotlight

There was a time when Cameron Daddo seemed to be everywhere on television.

At 21 he helmed the 1980s dating show Perfect Match, then the youngest host of an Australian game show.

Daddo played second fiddle to mismatched dating contestants, and the robot Dexter, learning the tricks of live presenting and overcoming a nervous stutter.

“One of the challenges I had to get through in my life was a stutter and Perfect Match was a great training ground for me to find other words when I got stuck.”

Cameron Daddo has no regrets about moving back to Sydney.Credit: Nick Moir

In 1992, Daddo left for the US with model wife Alison Brahe to pursue acting, appearing in the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc and recurring parts on a string of other shows, including 24, NCIS and The Mentalist.

Eight years after his return, Daddo is making his debut for Sydney Theatre Company alongside Rebecca Gibney in the humorous drama Circle Mirror Transformation, opening July 12.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Annie Baker, Circle Mirror Transformation is set in an acting class run by Gibney’s character Marty.

Daddo plays her errant husband, making up the numbers in Marty’s class for this thoughtful study of group dynamics. Dean Bryant (Dear Evan Hansen) is director.

“To be back on stage with people for eight shows a week in such a prestigious theatre company, it feels like I’m an actor again,” Daddo says. “It’s certainly got me fizzing inside. He’s quite a complex character as we find out, a supportive husband with certainly a history.”

Gibney and Daddo are friends, having travelled to the US and Canada together for Luxury Escapes in 2024; and before that Daddo had a multi-episode arc on Gibney’s show Packed to the Rafters in 2012. This is also Gibney’s STC debut.

“One of the funnest places to be is between ‘action’ and ‘cut’ with Rebecca Gibney. It was always fun,” he says.

“Cam is not only a lovely human but a really fabulous actor with a tonne of experience, so being able to share the stage with him will be such a joy, especially with this play,” Gibney reciprocates.

Cameron Daddo and Rebecca Gibney during Daddo’s run on Packed to the Rafters.

Circle Mirror Transformation marks Gibney’s return to the stage after almost 20 years. It’s Daddo’s first theatre outing since appearing in the musical Once at the Darlinghurst Theatre in 2019. “It’s too long ago, this amount of time between drinks; that’s why I’m excited,” Daddo says.

“In Los Angeles I studied a lot, I took a lot of acting classes. It’s what you do to keep sharp because you never know when the next audition is coming, and there were lots of them. And that’s really what was one of the attractions of the script.”

Daddo is looking forward to the rehearsals, which can be as much fun, he says, as being in the middle of a season.

“Because you are constantly distilling and making sure that the story you’re trying to tell has been told,” he said. “Making mistakes and seeing what works and doesn’t work, taking chances and risking stuff.”

Daddo returned to Australia with Alison and their children, Lotus, Bodhi and River, in 2017 for ageing parents and as acting work dried up in Hollywood.

“There was a complete swing away from middle-aged white men to make way for diversity, which was what needed to happen,” he says. “Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of that, so I had to follow the money and follow my heart with the family.”

Rebuilding friendships and connections has been difficult once the “varnish, the shininess of being the new people back in town” wears off, but despite the “bumpy” transition he has no regrets. Two former Daddo family homes were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires last month.

“Westside Waldorf, our kids’ school, that went too. Our neighbours and friends have all either lost their homes or have been deeply, deeply affected by it, so yeah, I’m glad to have missed it,” he says.

Daddo and Brahe co-host hit podcast Separate Bathrooms, in which they talk about their 30-year marriage. Daddo has also authored the memoir Keep it Smooth: Life Lessons in Confidence and is a Smooth FM presenter.

Common to all his projects is storytelling. “My job is to tell a part of the story and support the characters in moving the story forward. That’s why I love theatre. It’s a team effort.”

Audiences also have long memories. A cab driver recently asked him: “Weren’t you Cameron Daddo?”

“Still am,” Daddo replied. The cabbie had remembered him from Perfect Match. “Wait,” said Daddo incredulously, “that was 30 years ago.”

Circle Mirror Transformation is at Wharf 1 Theatre from July 12 to September 7.

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