Hey Dad! star Simone Buchanan directing more than acting these days

She was best known for her role as Debbie Kelly on Hey Dad! but Simone Buchanan has graced our TV screens for many years in the 80s, 90s and noughties. So where is the 50-year-old now?

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Simone Buchanan is more likely to be found behind the camera than in front these days. She hasn’t given up acting, it is just the path the 50-year-old’s career has taken her.

Having started as a child actor playing Mary Anne in iconic 1979 Australian film, My Brilliant Career, 2019 marks Buchanan’s fourth decade in the industry.

“I have not given up acting but I don’t really have this urgency to always be in front of the camera,” Buchanan told Confidential.

“I have always done it I guess. You see young people coming up desperate to be in front of the camera, I just don’t have that kind of need thank God. I forget a lot of it, it feels like a lifetime ago.”

Simone Buchanan (far right) with her sister Beth and Hey Dad! co-star Christopher Truswell.

Name an Aussie TV show from the 80s, 90s and noughties and Buchanan has probably made an appearance.

ABC kids series Secret Valley was Buchanan’s first ongoing TV gig, followed by spots on Runaway Island, A Country Practice, GP, All Saints, Water Rats, Blue Heelers, McLeod’s Daughters and Neighbours.

Her younger sister Beth was also in Secret Valley while older brother Miles was a familiar face on Aussie TV throughout the 80s.

Playing Debbie Kelly on Hey Dad! is one of Buchanan’s best known roles. Buchanan later supported co-star and fellow former child actor Sarah Monahan over allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour against actor Robert Hughes, who played their TV father Martin Kelly on the show.

Hollywood was never a driving force for Buchanan, although she came close in award-winning local flick, Shame, which also starred Deborra-lee Furness and was an indie hit in the United States.

“I was contracted to Hey Dad! and Deb rang me and told me to come over but I couldn’t,” she recalled.

Simone Buchanan, 50, has turned her hand to directing. Picture: Supplied

“She did really well over there through Shame. I got a phone call from a really big producer over there who was casting for a big film saying they’d been looking at girls for months and couldn’t find anyone.

“He had just watched Shame and offered me the lead role in a big Hollywood film. But they wouldn’t let me out of my contract for Hey Dad! so I didn’t end up going. I never really felt the urge to chase it and then I had a family.”

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She added: “I’ve always said I would go over if I got something off the back of something I was doing here but I don’t ever want to go over and sit and waitress and audition and wait.”

Child stars: Miles Buchanan with sisters Simone and Beth.

Buchanan’s most recent acting job was starring alongside Steve Bisley, Ernie Dingo, John Jarratt and Hugh Sheridan in Boar.

She grew up in Sydney and now teaches acting in Melbourne, as well as working as a director for Neighbours, a full circle move of sorts considering she played recurring character Samantha Fitzgerald on the TV soap from 2008 to 2010.

“I’m back there now directing, which is an interesting twist,” she explained.

“I’m kicking off the Neighbours year with three eps I directed airing this week, which is nice.”

Simone Buchanan in one of her earliest roles.

Simone Buchanan (top left) with the cast of Pacific Drive.

Of directing, she added: “It has taken me a long time to get my head around actually. Because I’ve been acting for so long, it is flipping your brain to the opposite to what you know how to do. It is a really technical thing. Acting is a really creative thing so I am looking at it from the opposite end than I have been used to doing.”

Buchanan, who has starred in Neighbours, is now directing for the Aussie soap.

Buchanan has two sons — Tane, 20, and eight-year-old Remy.

She would never push either of her children into entertainment, observing the industry changes since she was a kid actor.

“Back then there were less actors,” she explained.

“There wasn’t the huge competition that there is now, hence why acting schools are so popular. It is a different vibe and also it is different aesthetically, there’s a bigger need to be more beautiful.

“It is a bit more superficial than it used to be. I remember when it used to be that if you were a good actor, if you did a good audition, it is not necessarily the case these days where there are a lot of people getting jobs because of their looks when they are not the best actor for the job.”

Buchanan continued: “Hollywood has been like that for a long time and we’ve seen that develop over here. Creatively that might not be as fulfilling, which is a shame.”