Americans are loving Aussie Geraldine Viswanathan

She was only on Home and Away as an extra but this Aussie star skipped straight over to the US and now they’re loving her.

Geraldine Viswanathan’s name might not roll off the tongue as easily as Margot Robbie or Chris Hemsworth.

But the Australian is hot stuff in Hollywood.

The breakout star of Blockers hit the big-time when the raunchy comedy starring Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz came out just under 12 months ago and everyone in the US started paying attention.

In Blockers, she played Kayla, the ballsy and confident teen daughter of Cena’s character and not only did she hold her own against experienced thespians, but she often stole the scene from them.

Not bad for a 23-year-old girl from Newcastle.

MORE: Blockers will surprise you

Geraldine Viswanathan is one of the scores of Australians making it big in the US. Picture: John Sciulli/Getty Images for Turner

Now Viswanathan is starring opposite Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi in the offbeat comedy Miracle Workers, which drops on Stan today. She plays Eliza, an “angel” in the bureaucracy of heaven, joining Radcliffe’s Craig in the “Prayers Answered” department.

Where Craig has been content with helping people find a lost glove, Eliza’s ambitions lie in the endless piles of “impossible” prayers.

If Viswanathan could pick one “impossible” prayer of her own to be answered, it would be that there would be more empathy in the world.

“You know, I think we could use that right now — listening to each other and less hatred,” she tells news.com.au.

Viswanathan is part of a crew of Australian actors who’ve headed over to the US after finding few opportunities in the much smaller local industry.

Not actors like the Hemsworths. Actors like Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians), Remy Hii (Marco Polo), Eka Darville (Jessica Jones), Dichen Lachman (Altered Carbon) or Keiynan Lonsdale (The Flash). Actors who don’t look like the Hemsworths.

These Australians from diverse backgrounds have found more roles in the bigger sandbox of the Hollywood machine than the limited ones at home.

Some, like Lachman, made a go of the usual rounds like Neighbours before decamping. Others, like Viswanathan, the daughter of a father with an Indian Tamil background and a mother with Swiss heritage, jump ship fairly early on.

Viswanathan walked out of a Harry Potter movie because she was scared.

“Actually, I was an extra on Home and Away when I was 17,” she says, laughing.

Since making a splash in Blockers a year ago, Viswanathan has noticed that it’s not just that there is less opportunity for roles at home, there’s also not a lot of attention paid to our successful exports.

“I think Australia focuses on people that had a big start at home, like Home and Away or Neighbours graduates, and the truth is those shows are pretty white for the most part,” she says.

“The diverse actors go straight to the States because that is where more diverse stories and opportunities are being presented.

“I think that’s why they don’t get as much recognition in Australia. I hope that changes because there are a lot of really exciting, diverse Australian actors doing amazing things in the States and I hope Australia feels proud of them because it is a reflection of the diverse talent that comes from Australia.”

Viswanathan in a scene with Gideon Adlon and Kathryn Newton in Blockers. Supplied by Universal Pictures.

It’s been a whirlwind year for the young Aussie, whose few roles at home included eight episodes on ABC legal drama Janet King.

She admits to initially being intimidated when she meets and works alongside big-name actors such as Mann or Buscemi, but gets over it quickly because “they’re just people who are lovely and really hard working and good at what they do”.

And, maybe luckily, for her, she walked out of a Harry Potter movie when she was eight years old because she got scared — “I was a weak kid, so easily scared” — so she didn’t grow up with a Daniel Radcliffe obsession like some of her friends.

“I think it worked out in my favour when I worked with him,” she says. “I watched a lot of his recent work too and I think he is brilliant. It’s more like, ‘ohmigod, Daniel Radcliffe! Obviously Harry Potter but also Swiss Army Man’.”

MORE: Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse in Swiss Army Man is oddly profound

With John Cena and Miles Robbins in Blockers, for which she was called the breakout star

She says it was “surreal (a word I use a lot)” when critics and media started to call her the “breakout star” of Blockers but she’s also learnt from her more seasoned colleagues — not just the likes of Cena but also younger compatriots like Gideon Adlon and Miles Robbins who grew up as kids of Hollywood stars — when it comes to dealing with so-called stardom.

“All of them put family first and I think that grounds them because they know what’s real and important — staying connected to communities outside of the industry and realising you’re really lucky to be here. And just enjoy it.”

Miracle Workers premieres on Stan today.

Blockers is available to rent or for purchase on digital platforms.

Share your TV and movies obsessions: @wenleima