Young Aussie stars of the future shine bright
They’re our next generation of big Aussie stars – and never have they shone brighter. Here’s Lisa Mayoh’s pick on who to look out for and why you won’t be able to look away.
Entertainment
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With the resurgence of Aussie drama has come with it greater opportunity for our country’s youngest acting hopefuls. Bay Of Fires stars Ava Caryofyllis and her on-screen big brother Imi Mbedla are two of them.
Ava is only 12 but has already starred in movies alongside Hollywood’s biggest names, including Hugo Weaving in Heart And Bones, Woody Harrelson in Kate for Netflix, Kelly McDonald in Dirt Music and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o in Little Monsters. Ava, who is in Year 7, began acting when she was five – and even she can’t believe what she’s already accomplished.
“It’s pretty awesome,” she laughs.
“Quite a few kids in my school now know about it, and even the teachers, so it’s pretty cool and people are talking to me about it. It’s just crazy.
“My dad had done acting all his life, so when I was five he asked me if I wanted to try it and I was like: ‘Sure!’ I had done some modelling and then, after like a year, I got a feature film called Little Monsters, which was a movie about zombies, and it was pretty big for me when I was little.”
She’s also got an independent film in post-production and has her fingers crossed for a second season of Marta Dusseldorf’s ABC hit Bay Of Fires.
To fit school in between sets, most productions have a tutor for kids like Ava, who says it’s hard to fit that in too, but that’s a price she’s willing to pay. And when she’s not working, she’s playing touch footy with her friends or getting to debating quarterfinals.
“It was a big change going to Tasmania, especially because I live in Sydney and it’s a big city, and we moved to remote Queenstown in Tasmania – but acting with Marta was so good,” she tells Insider of shooting Bay Of Fires.
“I was with my dad most of the time and my mum sometimes came down to swap – but Marta was the next best thing for a mum.
“She was always asking if we were cold, if we were OK, hungry – she was always getting extra heat pads for our shoes and hands, which was amazing.
“All the actors were just like a second family – and Imi was like my big brother because I do have a big brother who’s around Imi’s age, and I only saw him twice in those three months, and it was like hard to not have him around, so Imi was like my real brother.”
She does get nervous meeting famous stars but saves her “freak outs” for the car ride to set – and says Woody Harrelson was “hilarious”.
“We were filming one day and I was on this chair, and he was grabbing my chair and shaking it and he was like: ‘Oh, my gosh Ava it’s an earthquake!’ and I was laughing,” says the Five Dock teen.
“He was so funny – it was amazing.
“And I was only nine years old.
“I do get nervous but I normally freak out in the car. When I get there, I try and keep it together and hold myself together to try and act normal.
“Acting is now a normal thing for me – I couldn’t imagine not doing it. It’s a big part of my life.”
She looks up to the likes of Millie Bobby Brown and Margot Robbie, because not only are they good at their craft, they produce and write their own films too.
“It’d be pretty cool to do that one day,” she says.
“I’ve definitely learned confidence from Marta – she pushed me to do a play at the start of this year, which I never, ever thought in my life I would do, but I ended up doing Wind In The Willows in the Botanic Gardens and it was crazy – so my confidence has definitely shot up.
“I feel happy (about what I’m doing) but I’ve got to keep my head in the right place.”
Fellow Bay Of Fires star Mbedla plays Ava’s big brother – and says he felt like that off screen too.
Born in South Africa, he moved to Australia at the age of two and recently placed fourth in a US hip hop competition. The Glenfield 16-year-old has also modelled and appeared in a number of music videos as well as Marvel feature film Thor: Love And Thunder.
“For me, it all started through dance – I started dancing when I was around four and started classes when I was around 10,” he said.
“From there, I started competing with a dance crew and, through that, I got my first TV show called Ready Set Dance for Nickelodeon Jr, which was teaching kids to dance and be active.
“And through my TV commercials I fell in love with acting and being in front of the camera – and that’s when my management sent me through an audition for Bay Of Fires.”
Also studying counselling, he says creator Dusseldorp was like a mother figure to them on and off screen, being a mentor throughout the three-month shoot.
“She really helped me through this whole journey to be honest. I don’t know if I could do it without her … I was a bit nervous and didn’t know what to expect.
“But everyone was really nice and welcoming … I feel like we formed a little family and Ava, who was playing my little sister, kind of became like my little sister.
“We missed our family and friends, so it was good we were able to be there for each other during that time.
“It’s all so surreal.
“We finished shooting and I just wanted to keep doing it. I just want to keep acting, find new roles and different things to do.”
He says being a young actor was manageable, with auditions being more flexible since Covid – as long as you stay true to yourself.
“You just have to know that at the end of the day, you can do it and sometimes there will be a yes, sometimes it will be a no, but as long as you’re persistent and you know in your mind that ‘look this is something I want to do’, you have to go through the ups and downs and the disappointments and the rejections.”
OTHER RISING STARS
ALYLA BROWNE
Alyla stared acting at the age of six and has recently played the young version of the titular role in The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart with Sigourney Weaver. She was also Nicole Kidman’s daughter in Nine Perfect Strangers and has worked with George Miller on Three Thousand Years of Longing, and with Anna Paquin on True Spirit.
ASWAN REID
Definitely a rising star at only 11 years old, Aswan Reid has made his prolific debut in The New Boy with co-stars, Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett, The Sapphires’ Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, and director Warwick Thornton.
The New Boy has also recently been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival.
JULIA SAVAGE
Now 16, Julia was nominated for the AACTA Award and the Australian Film Critics Association Award for Best Lead Actress for Blaze opposite Simon Baker and Yael Stone.
This year she appeared with Guy Pearce, Teresa Palmer and Miranda Otto in Disney+ eight-part psychological thriller The Clearing, as well Prime Video’s Class Of ’07.
LILY LATORRE
At just nine, Lily LaTorre has already worked with the likes of directors Jeffery Walker in The Clearing, alongside Kate Mulvaney and Miranda Otto, as well as Daina Reid in Run Rabbit Run, playing a leading role opposite Sarah Snook.
She was the face of a major Telstra campaign for a number of years and has appeared in countless commercials for brands including Fox Sports and Myer.
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