Neighbours star Ryan Moloney reveals career change after series axed
He played the loveable class clown turned lawyer for 27 years – but this is what Ryan Moloney is planning for life after Neighbours ends.
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Actor Ryan Moloney, who played Jarrod “Toadie” Rebecchi on iconic Aussie soap Neighbours, has revealed his next career move once the show comes to a close this week.
Playing Toadie for almost three decades, Moloney captivated fans as the loveable class clown who grew to be a hot shot lawyer.
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But as the show comes to a close, Moloney has revealed he’ll be ditching Toadie for life as a tradie.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” Moloney told The Daily Telegraph. “I’m doing civil construction course which is about driving excavators and building roads.
“I like playing with those kinds of machines. I like doing earthworks, all that kind of manual labour stuff. That’s where I’m at, but who knows where it’s all going to end up?”
Moloney’s year has been full of big changes. His career shift comes after the veteran star sold his luxury Mornington Peninsula acreage a week before Neighbours was axed.
The small-screen star sold his luxurious Mornington Peninsula acreage for an undisclosed amount ranging between $6 and $6.3 million.
After having lived there with his wife for seven years, the couple were “stoked” to have sold the four-bedroom residence and its 4.33ha property to a young local family.
As the final episode looms closer, set to air in August, Moloney acknowledged how “lucky” he was to have had such a long-lasting career.
“To be a working actor in Australia with consistent work is incredibly special,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“And I have a large dose of gratitude towards life into what is created.”
Moloney first appeared as Toadie as a young teen with a troublemaking attitude but the audience love for his character quickly solidified him as part of the main cast.
The show is also acclaimed for jump-starting the careers of internationally acclaimed stars like Kylie Minogue, Delta Goodrem and Margot Robbie.
But as free-to-air television looks to be ending the same way as Blockbuster in a world of on-demand streaming giants, Moloney has lamented the poor treatment of the show that grew to be one of the great hallmarks of Aussie television.
Speaking to 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin breakfast in June, Moloney savaged the Logie Award's treatment of Neighbours’ imminent end – which also drew the pity of cast members of rival show Home And Away.
After he and fellow cast members from the show were split across two tables and seated “behind the cameras”, Moloney said the “incredibly disappointing” tribute package of the show that played during the ceremony only added insult to injury – with rival Channel 7 soap cast members taking pity.
“The cast of Home And Away came up afterwards and said how sorry they were that we got (snubbed),” he said.
In March, it was announced to devastated fans that Neighbours was coming to an end.
“Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show,” Fremantle Media said in a statement.
“To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incredible high. From here on, we are celebrating Neighbours.”
Neighbours draws about 1.5 million UK viewers daily, and up to 170,000 metro viewers in Australia.
The finale, which will feature special guest appearances from Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, airs Thursday, July 28 on 10.
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