Youngest Logies nominee has been performing since she was in nappies

AT HER first acting audition, a Sydney school student landed the lead in a new children’s series, which led to her first Logies nomination

Kiki Masella, 13, has been performing since she was two but her latest foray into acting has seen her receive a Logie nomination. Picture: John Appleyard

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Last year, aged 12, Kyliric Masella went to her first acting audition and landed the lead role of Fuzzy Mac in Grace Beside Me, a new childrens’ series on SBS’s National indigenous TV.

Last month, she discovered she was up for a TV Logie award for the role, the youngest Most Popular New Talent nominee this year, and one of the youngest in the awards’ nearly 60-year history.

Kiki as Fuzzy Mac in children’s TV series Grace Beside Me.

It was a shock for the International Grammar School Year 8 student, now 13, who has been taking singing and dancing classes at Moore Park’s Brent Street performing arts school since she was two.

“I didn’t think young actors went to the Logies,” she says.

The awards ceremony will be held on July 1 on the Gold Coast, which is not such a huge distance from Beaudesert, the small country town in Queensland where Kiki, as most people call her, spent four months making the TV series.

Fuzzy Mac discovers she has inherited special powers.

Fuzzy Mac is a modern indigenous kid who finds she has inherited a special gift from her ancestors. Kiki’s own background is Dharumbal Murri from Central Queensland, as well as Tongan and German, and her 18-year-old sister Mi-kaisha already has a career as a singer after appearing on The Voice Kids.

Kiki’s sister Mi-Kaisha, who has her own singing career.

Though Kiki had been singing and dancing since she was in nappies, her first acting job on camera was a much scarier prospect. “You’re not performing live on stage with a group of people, you’re by yourself.”

Her mother Kristy, who was on set most of the time, worried at first how Kiki would cope with the pressure, but saw her quickly adapt, with no problem learning her lines. “She had her own technique within the first two weeks,” Kristy says.

Though she was in Sydney — the family live in Lugarno — Mi-kaisha was also able to support her little sister.

“Because I was very stressed at the beginning, she helped me with that and talked to me every night,” Kiki says. “I’d sit on my bed and we’d Facetime for an hour.”

With long days of filming, keeping up with school work was tricky, but Kiki used weekends to stay on track (there wasn’t a whole lot to do in Beaudesert). Though she missed her school friends, by the time filming finished she had become very close with her co-stars, who lived in the same house. But when filming wrapped, they had to say goodbye.

Left to right: Tjiirdm McGuire, Kiki Masella and Mairehau Grace, in Grace Beside Me.

“We were all together on one day then split apart, that was hard.”

Adding acting to her CV, Kiki has stepped out of Mi-kaisha’s shadow, their mother says.

“Her big sister said, ‘Well this is a bit strange for me, now I’m following you around for interviews.’ But they are both really enjoying supporting each other,” said Kristy, who works in social justice for the Aboriginal Employment Strategy.

“I always had a dream of one of my daughters being a human rights lawyer and I ended up with an actor and a singer,” she says, laughing. “The good thing is, both of them are using that platform to raise really important issues in our communities.”

Kiki at Brent Street performing arts school at Moore Park, where she has been taking lessons since she was two. Picture: John Appleyard

For now, Kiki is focusing on getting to the Logies but she has big dreams.

“Beyonce is my idol. She’s an all-rounder, dancing and singing and acting, so that would be amazing to go on tour.”

The shortlist of Logies nominees is announced on May 27.

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