Tanika Anderson, David Fairhurst, Ricky Rojas among Parramatta’s best artists
Meet the Parramatta-raised thespians making their mark on the world including roles in Moulin Rouge! The Musical and performing for the Queen in Buckingham Palace.
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From those gracing the stages of Broadway to those working behind the screens as fledgling filmmakers, a huge pool of talent has emerged from Parramatta.
DAVID FAIRHURST
As a self-described failed child actor, it wasn’t long before David Fairhurst found his calling as a filmmaker.
“I had an agent since the time I was 12 and didn’t book many auditions but kind of got enough work to learn how a film set works and kind of fell in love with being-the-scenes part of it,’’ he says.
“So by the time I was graduating film school I figured out that was really my calling and started making a number of short films just with my friends from high school, just running around the bush in North Rocks or around Parramatta, without any permits, getting chased by the cops, which was kind of interesting.’’
With limited budgets for making short films, the 29-year-old former Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High School student has learned to be creative with money as well as visually.
Like when filming 90-minute feature film Reaching Distance, starring Tara Morice, in 2018.
“It’s a film about a guy with a photographic memory who wakes up on a bus in the middle of the night and realises that he’s met every single passenger on the bus before, including the person responsible for his sister’s death,’’ Fairhurst says.
“ … It’s a kind of loopy psychological thriller set entirely on a bus and to get it made, I found a really cheap, run-down bus on Gumtree for like $5000 and we stripped it apart and turned it into a film set.’’
Fairhurst has a knack for being “ludicrously ambitious with the limited resources I had”.
“I do remember there was a point when I was making a short film about a modern day retelling of the assassination of Rasputin, so it was a bunch of people trying to dispose a body of this guy that just refused to die and so I remember running around near a waterfall in North Rocks with a fake body wrapped up in a bloody sleeping bag.
“We also had someone blindly leaping around the bush taped up inside the bag. People were on morning walks with their dogs.’’
After graduating from the International Film School of Sydney, Fairhurst made multiple films including This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, which earned him the best editing gong at this year’s Flickerfest short film festival.
Now he is working on a feature film with a US company.
“Covid has made it difficult and we’re still developing the script for that,’’ he says.
“I was incredibly excited. It’s that short film blowing up as a kind of a wonderful validation.’’
His five-minute horror flick White Void caught the attention of those in the industry stateside.
“I think we had 50,000 people watch it in the first two weeks so it’s exciting to know there is a big audience out there that like the sort of stuff I’m making and that have an interest in my work.
“And it’s nice to see reflected back by the people in the US wanting to hire me so I’m incredibly excited about what opportunity that’s going to present and what kind of stories I’m going to be able to tell, hopefully with more resources and more time and more money that I’ve been afforded before.’’
Now living in Lane Cove, he is still close with classmates from Northmead.
“Whenever there was a school band, there was always this rush of support for one another and it was never a judgmental environment, it was always a great place to be,’’ he says.
“Over 10 years later I still have friends from high school that are willing to support me with all of my projects and that is definitely the vibe of the place, and I hope it still is.’’
RICKY ROJAS
Parramatta Marist High School alumni Ricky Rojas went from starring in school musicals to hitting the big time in Tony-nominated Broadway productions.
The 42-year-old thespian earned the nickname “The Voice” in high school where his talent shone through in productions such as Fiddler on the Roof (portraying the character Mendel), as well as playing Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie and Frederic in Pirates of Penzance.
“I just remember it being great because they were quite supportive of the arts with musicals and dramas and I was playing trombone and was in all the school musicals,’’ Rojas told the Parramatta Advertiser in October.
“I did drama as a HSC elective.”
Rojas was accepted into studying law at UWS before opting to study communications but, with the stage calling his name, he dropped out to focus on a promising singing career, which led to landing the lead role of Richie Valens in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in 2001.
Other works under his belt included Sister Act The Musical, Tonight’s the Night: Rod Stewart Musical, Grease, Flashdance The Musical, The Pirates of Penzance, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
A steady stream of work led to his Broadway debut for Burn the Floor in 2009 and in 2019, after a run in Boston, Moulin Rouge! The Musical hit the Big Apple where Rojas played Santiago, which also shares the name of his South American city of birth.
As COVID-19 ravaged New York, and Rojas caught the virus, the season was disrupted but the successful eight-month run led to 14 Tony nominations and the delayed 74th annual awards night will be held at Radio City Music Hall on September 27 after being rescheduled from June 2020.
Moulin Rouge returns to the Big Apple in September.
“New York is like the only city in the world that lives up to the hype you see in the movies,’’ Rojas said.
It’s a long way from Rojas’s upbringing in western Sydney, where he lived in Guildford after first migrating from Chile in 1985, then moving to Toongabbie, Blacktown and Winston Hills. He attended St Paul the Apostle Winston Hills before Parramatta Marist.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
Former Greystanes dweller Alexander Campbell’s gift for dance has seen him perform for the Queen with the Royal Ballet School in London where he is a principal dancer.
“A couple of years ago we had a performance where we were actually in Buckingham Palace, a few of us performed for a private audience in one of the amazing state rooms and that was also absolutely incredible,’’ the 34-year-old says.
Her Majesty greeted and congratulated ballerinas after their performance.
“It’s just quite extraordinary to be so close to people that you’ve seen plenty of times on TV or in the papers as real people,’’ Campbell says.
The former Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School Greystanes student has been dancing since he was five and learned much from his grandmother who was a ballet teacher.
His two sisters Ariane and Amelia are also performers in singing and acting.
When he was 12 he took steps to become a professional in his craft and moved to London as a 16-year-old and secured a dream to work at London’s Royal Opera House with the help of Sydney Eisteddfod $12,000 prize money.
“It’s a lifelong passion for me. It’s the thing that I enjoy watching most, it’s the thing that I aspire to be good at and I still feel like I’m trying my best to get better and I suppose it’s a way that I express myself as well so it means a great deal.’’
The former Australian Ballet artist has managed to have solid work as an artist.
“Our workload at the Opera House is fairly tense — we do uploads of 160 shows a year so it’s often tricky to find the time (for other events),’’ he says.
“It’s part of the company, which is repertoire based, so you’re always churning things over, we do 12 or 13 productions in a year.
“You do feel really fortunate to be able to have that security, to know that you’ve got different productions coming up, different roles to explore and that sort of security doesn’t exist everywhere in the arts.
“We work really hard so it’s hard to find time to do other stuff.’’
TANIKA ANDERSON
Former Model Farms High student turned Hi-5 cast member Tanika Anderson knows how fortunate she is to land roles, including her latest as Queen Iduna in the musical Frozen.
Discovering she was successful for the role coincided with her honeymoon in December 2019 when she was laying on a beach.
“I literally screamed. I got the message, screamed, called my whole family with terrible reception all the way from Phuket,’’ she says.
“So it just meant I could celebrate the rest of my honeymoon and just be so happy and full of joy.’’
The musical was staged at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre when Sydney was out of lockdown.
“The audition process was so thorough that when you booked the job it felt like such an achievement because you had to get through so many barriers to get it, and then Covid happened and to be the first ones back in a theatre post Covid was just the most incredible feeling.
“You could feel it from the audience as well, it was just really, really magical.’’
Anderson joined the children’s entertainment Hi-5 between April 2014 and December 2016, at
what was the start of a “fulfilling and joyful’’ career.
“And being in Hi-5 was the best job in the world and I met my husband (Stevie Nicholson) so I really loved every second of that.’’
Before Hi-5, Anderson also studied at the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and toured internationally with children’s group The Superdudes and was a lead performer at Universal Studios in Singapore.
“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,’’ she said.
“I’ve had a pretty steady stream myself.
“However it is important to have your own thing going on so when I’m not performing I’ll be travelling with my partner and doing our own show, and that’s been really fulfilling because it means we’re staying creative, which is so important, especially when you’re not in a role and even when you’re in a role, especially a long-running role like Frozen.’’
For Anderson that also means studying psychological science at university.
Anderson calls Bronte home but is a regular visitor to her old stomping ground.
“I feel more at home in Parramatta and The Hills area than anywhere else and still enjoy walking around Westfield, it’s so nostalgic for me because it’s where I grew up.’’
Anderson, who has Singaporean heritage, can’t resist a visit to Parramatta Malaysian restaurant Temasek.
A woman of many passions, she started ethical clothing company You and Mei, in Myanmar in 2017. The project helps teach skills such as sewing to young women living in poverty.
SHERIDAN MOUAWAD
When Sheridan was at Our Lady of Lebanon College at Harris Park and growing up in Merrylands, she was dreaming of Broadway.
“I think everyone has that feeling, especially being from my culture,’’ Sheridan says.
“Being Lebanese, they’re like ‘What are you doing in this business, do something like be a doctor or a lawyer where you can guarantee yourself work, you're always going to be a struggling artist, you can’t save money, you can’t make a life out of this career.’’
But she stuck with her passion and landed in the Big Apple when she was 19 and studied with the The American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
The training that led to parts in West Side Story in London’s West End and Grease by the time she was 21 when she was relishing living in the US.
“My favourite place was San Francisco. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I had a life, I had my show but I also had my outside communities, I had my own apartment that I didn’t have to buy furniture for.’’
She performed internationally as Jasmine in the theatrical production of Aladdin in the US and on Broadway for Cirque Du Soleil’s Paramour.
Her brother, Roger, competed in the ballet category and performed for the Paris Opera Ballet.
The siblings co-founded Dance Worx Academy at Parramatta.
“The reason we opened the Academy in Parramatta is because no one dances in Parramatta, there’s nothing available to people in Parramatta and we want that to change,’’ Sheridan says.
“When me and my brother were growing up we had to travel all the way to Penrith, or all the way to the city to get any kind of education or anything that had to do with the performing arts and I also believe I can be an inspiration to people.
“I think the arts, just in general (are so important). Music and dance as a form of therapy for kids. It also allows children to have imagination, to give them the ability to grow whoever they want to be and allowing that to be a form of expression.
“My whole motto is inspiring, be aspiring.’’
ROGER MOUAWAD
When Roger Mouawad was born “club foot’’ with his feet 180 degrees inward, few suspected a career as a dancer was in the offing.
The Merrylands artist was forced to wear casts and splints on his legs until he could walk and night shoes to correct his feet until he was two.
When he collected his sister Sheridan from a jazz class when he was 11, he became hooked on dancing and has trained in dance ever since.
He has graced international stages with the Paris Opera Ballet, Atlantic City Ballet and Contemporary Company and he performed in productions such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and The Nutcracker as a soloist and duets.
After competing in the Sydney Eisteddfod and McDonald’s Performing Arts Challenge 2008, he has danced around the world including a training stint with Hilary Kaplan at Alegria and completing the Royal Academy of Dance ballet exams with distinction.
Now his talents have come full circle and he is imparting his experience on to the younger generation at Dance Worx, a studio he created with Sheridan.
DEMI LOUISE
Winning an international gong for the first short film you produced is a welcome confidence boost for any fledgling artist and Demi Louise is no exception.
Like many artists in lockdown, the 22-year-old singing teacher unleashed her creativity from a home studio and produced her first film, cinematic opera Emilie Emilie & Voltaire, last year when booming voices rung throughout suburban Pemulwuy.
In March, the 22-minute film claimed best production design at the Paris International Film Festival, a reward after wearing multiple hats, from location scout to costume selector.
The Cerdon College and Sydney Acting School graduate’s former singing teacher Nicholas Gentile, asked her to produce the film, which was shot in Darling Point to resemble a French chateux.
“These days you kind of have to be everything so I’m kind of in the filmmaking side of things too,’’ Louise says.
“You have to generate your own work and there are so many opportunities. I think your career will have more longevity because you all know how hard the industry is. It’s the hardest industry in the world so you have to generate your own opportunities and I think it makes you a better actor for it.’’
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