And now the 36-year-old actor is proving her worth behind the camera, having landed her “first big gig” as a director’s assistant on a major new Netflix series – filmed in Tasmania – which hits screens next week.

The Survivors is a six-part murder mystery series, based on Australian author Jane Harper’s best-selling novel, which is set in the fictional Tasmanian town of Evelyn Bay.

The production – one of the biggest screen projects to be filmed in Tasmania in recent years – was primarily filmed at Eaglehawk Neck, on the Tasman Peninsula, but also at more than a dozen other sites across greater Hobart including New Norfolk, Blackmans Bay, Fern Tree, Margate, Sandy Bay, Geeveston and Taroona.

Produced by the award-winning team at Tony Ayres Productions (Fires, Clickbait,

Stateless) and backed by Matchbox Pictures, Universal International Studios, VicScreen and Screen Tasmania, the series brings together a talented cast and crew, with familiar faces including Charlie Vickers (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Medici, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), Yerin Ha (Halo, Bridgerton, Bad Behaviour), Martin Sacks (Blue Heelers, Underbelly, Rise), Robyn Malcolm (Upper Middle Bogan, Outrageous Fortune, Rake), Damien Garvey (McLeod’s Daughters, Harrow, Jack Irish), Catherine McClements (Water Rats, Wentworth, The Secret Life of Us, Apple Cider Vinegar), George Mason (Home and Away, Dirt Music, Sunny Nights), Don Hany (Offspring, East West 101, White Collar Blue) and Miriama Smith (Xena: Warrior Princess, Shortland Street).

And while viewers won’t see Katie Robertson on screen when The Survivors goes to air on Friday, June 6, the Tassie local played an important role behind the scenes as an assistant to Cherie Nowlan – who directed episodes 1-3 of the series (episodes 4-6 were directed by Ben C. Lucas).

Robertson describes the gig as “life-changing” and since filming wrapped in the middle of last year she has already been working on a couple of other projects behind the scenes, with a TV show and a feature film – both set in Tassie – now in the early stages of development.

After growing up at Bream Creek, Robertson moved interstate at 18 to complete Sydney Theatre School’s Diploma of Arts (Acting) and since moving back to Tasmania about 12 years ago her career has boomed, with roles in major TV dramas including The Kettering Incident, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Wanted, Deadloch, Rosehaven, White Fever, Five Bedrooms and the upcoming season of ABC series Bay of Fires which airs on June 15.

And as much as she loves being on screen and on stage, Robertson says she’s always had a curiosity about what happens behind the scenes. So being offered the chance to work with Nowlan was a dream come true.

“It has always been my dream to live and work in Tassie,” explains Robertson who moved from Bream Creek to nearby Boomer Bay where she lives with her husband Jesse Dugan and their five-year-old son George.

“And I got to a point in my career where I wanted to be a bit more useful to the industry, instead of waiting for jobs and roles to arrive. And so that’s what kind of set me on a path of creating my own projects and moving into directing. This is my first big gig behind the camera. It’s something I wanted to do for a long time but I guess I’d been busy in front of it.’’

Even when she was on set, working as an actor on various TV shows, Robertson often found herself captivated by what was happening behind the scenes.

“The actors would all clear off between set ups and sit elsewhere and I’d often stay on set and sit and watch the crew, I’d sit by the camera and be asking the DOP (director of photography) questions,” she explains.

“I was just always fascinated and I guess I felt this pull to be behind the camera and so when the opportunity arrived (to work on The Survivors), I leapt at it.’’

Nowlan is an award-winning TV and film director with extensive credits in Australia and the US.

She has directed some of Netflix’s most watched television series including Suits, You, Clickbait and Outer Banks; Amazon’s Sneaky Pete and The Wilds; and Hulu’s Reprisal and Helstrom (Marvel). Other credits include Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Doctor, Law & Order Organised Crime, The Irrational, Animal Kingdom, Seal Team, How To Get Away With Murder, Chicago Med, Chicago PD and Riverdale.

“Cherie is such a prolific director,’’ Robertson says.

“And she’s just a country girl like me. She really took me under her wing and shared her entire process with me and she quickly fell in love with the place and the people here. We still have weekly phone calls, she’s become a real mentor and a dear friend and someone who is important in my life. She taught me a lot and gave me a lot of confidence to move forward and start doing more on my own.’’

Robertson enjoyed getting an interstate perspective on her home state.

“Tassie has a way of getting under people’s skin – even people who were from interstate I think, very quickly, were drawn to the place,’’ she says.

“It was kind of nice to travel the place and go on location reccies and be seeing the place through their eyes.’’

One of her roles included working with Tasmanian-based cinematographer Ursula Woods on an art project which is an ongoing part of the storyline and part of the show’s opening credits.

But mostly she was supporting Nowlan and ensuring things ran smoothly by working collaboratively with others on set.

“The role of director is so vast,’’ Robertson explains.

“And there are so many balls you have to have in the air.’’

Sometimes Robertson was a sounding board for Nowlan’s ideas, offering her own insight and helping her to work through any potential problems. Sometimes she was liaising with other departments to communicate these ideas. There was also a need to manage schedules, and ensure things happened within set timeframes. Whatever Nowlan needed assistance with, Robertson was there to help.

“She opened up the whole experience for me,’’ Robertson says.

“She asked my opinion, all the way from casting to the edit she’d be inviting my opinion and I still kind of can’t believe that she let me do that. We learnt quickly that our tastes align and we developed this trust.

“She’s just the biggest champion of me, even now, she really wants me to spread my wings and fly. It was a life-changing job for me, it came at a pivotal time in my life where I was thinking about creating on the other side of the camera, so it was a really formative experience that has sent me now on this new trajectory of me being more of a creator behind the camera.’’

Robertson credits producer Andrew Walker – who has worked extensively in Tasmania on projects including Rosehaven, Deadloch, The Kettering Incident and The Survivors – for being her “guardian angel” and connecting her with Nowlan.

“Andy Walker, he’s at the heart of everything good that happens in my life,’’ she laughs.

“He worked on The Kettering Incident – the first big TV show shot here and my first big screen role – and ever since then he’s just been kind of a guardian angel. He knows everyone in Tassie who has ever even looked sideways at a camera, he has a deep love for this place, and he has worked hard to upskill people in Tassie. For me, personally, he knew the direction I was interested in, and hungry for. So when a position came up (working with Nowlan) he put my name forward.”

A Zoom meeting with Nowlan had Robertson super keen to work on the project.

“I got off Zoom and I said: ‘I love her, I really want this’,” she recalls.

Robertson says Nowlan is down to earth but always strives for excellence and has the ability to bring out the best in people, which is one of the key factors in what made The Survivors so great. Robertson says although some viewers may draw parallels between The Survivors and other murder mysteries filmed in Tasmania, she believes The Survivors has a unique quality that sets it apart from other Australian dramas.

“There’s something quite elevated about it,’' she explains.

“It really sits in its own world and I’m just really proud to have been such a small part of it … it's an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.”

She says with every Tasmanian project there’s a lot of the same Tassie crew working behind the scenes and she believes with the steady stream of large-scale productions now being filmed here, people have been able to upskill and learn from the best in the business. So Tasmanians are constantly getting better at what they do, which means the shows being produced are constantly reaching new heights.

“Every project that comes here I still just pinch myself,’’ Robertson says.

“And I hope that it continues on that trajectory because I think people are clueing in to the fact it is such a unique location that has much to give and that we do have such hardworking and talented crew down here that are hungry for work.’’

She says the fact that industry heavyweights like Andy Walker choose to return to the state again and again to film shows “says a lot about the place and the people here”.

Early in her career Robertson never imagined Tasmania would one day become a sought-after filming location for high-quality film and television productions.

“It’s kind of incredible,’’ she says.

“Fifteen-year-old Katie would be pinching herself that on Netflix and ABC – within a month of each other – there are two pillars of television, that have had Tassie crews who have pulled them together … and they were shot here … it’s amazing. I’ve never been prouder to be part of the Tassie crew.’’

Robertson enjoyed an advanced screening of The Survivors, and she’s excited to see it shared with audiences in Tasmania and beyond.

“I can’t wait to see it on the Netflix home page,’’ she says.

“And seeing these beautiful images of my neck of the woods, it’s just so stunning – it’s kind of surreal to think it’s going to be showcased to the world so beautifully, it’s really exciting. It’s the Tassie that I know, what has ended up on screen, it feels very personal to me.’’

Sydney-based Nowlan had visited Tasmania in the past, but The Survivors was her first time working in the state.

And while she has directed projects all over the world, in places including the US, Canada and New Zealand, she says Tasmania – with its impressive landscape and talented cast and crew – easily ranks among the best.

Nowlan describes the landscape as a key character in The Survivors, which is central to the storytelling.

And while some interstate filming locations were briefly considered for the project it quickly became apparent that there was no better place than Tasmania. Most of the series was filmed on location, apart from some complex and dramatic cave scenes – which, for safety reasons, were filmed on an elaborate life-sized set at Docklands Studios, in Melbourne, which was constructed from cement strong enough to withstand the force of powerful waves, created by water rushing in from giant water tanks.

“The book is set in Tasmania so we never really considered setting this in a different location, not least because the landscape is a character in the story,’’ Nowlan says.

“And it’s almost impossible to double Tasmania anywhere else in Australia anyway, even if we wanted to, which we didn’t.

“We did sort of have a half-hearted look at other places but it got dismissed very quickly. There are some spectacular caves in New South Wales and Western Australia. But when I say spectacular – nothing compared to the Tasman Peninsula. And particularly, I think, that Eaglehawk Neck area, which fitted the description perfectly.’’

Nowlan spent five months working in Tasmania from November 2023 to Easter 2024, and quickly discovered there was a lot to love about the state’s stunning and varied landscapes.

“It’s epic in its scale,’’ she says, of what makes Tassie’s landscape perfect for filming.

“It’s atmospheric, it’s beautiful and also dangerous so it lends itself to dramatic stories. It has a really fascinating history – not that that’s what we’re investigating here, but it creates a mood, I think, that’s special to Tasmania. And it feels really unspoiled and – dare I say it – underpopulated. I don’t want everyone rushing to live in Tasmania necessarily, because I’d never want it spoiled. But I do feel a little bit like I’m at the end of the earth when I’m in Tasmania, in a good way. I feel connected to nature, I suppose, in a way I don’t living in a city.’’

She says in Sydney, it’s a long drive from the city to get to nature, but in just over an hour from Hobart you can easily immerse yourself in nature at places like Eaglehawk Neck, which put on “fantastic” weather for filming.

The production employed a significant number of Tasmanian-based creatives, including 60 full-time and 20 casual crew, 15 attachments, about 30 supporting cast members and hundreds of extras. And Nowlan says everything flowed “incredibly easily”.

“Tasmania, and particularly Hobart, has a deep bench of creative people, so we had no issue with finding anyone we needed,” she says.

She says shooting in summer has given The Survivors a different look to projects like The Gloaming, Deadloch and The Kettering Incident, which were primarily shot in the cooler months and have a distinctly wintry feel.

“The Survivors, despite the darker subject matter, is very colourful and vibrant and warm,’’ she says.

Nowlan was drawn to the story’s emotional weight and haunting atmosphere.

“I love a good murder mystery but I especially love one that’s chasing bigger ideas,’’ she says.

The story explores the lingering trauma of a tragic event from the past, as a new murder rocks the tight-knit coastal community of Evelyn Bay.

“I think people like to solve puzzles,’’ Nowlan says of why people are drawn to murder mysteries.

“We live with so many unsolved crimes in our community, that it’s really cathartic to go through a drama and actually have a tragedy explained. I think that’s the key thing that makes people want to watch this genre. But in our story it really is the trojan horse. It’s a way into a deeper story about grief, loss, guilt, and how trauma affects us in the short-term and in the long-term and sometimes over generations.’’

She loves the way Tasmania presents on screen and says drones and other technology helped perfectly showcase the state’s beauty.

“I was thrilled with how Tasmania looked and I hope Tasmanians are as happy as I am,’’ Nowlan says.

“In terms of the story, by episode six it’s a very emotional story … I really encourage people to binge this series because I think it is satisfying on every level.’’

And she can’t say enough wonderful things about Katie Robertson, who played a critical role in bringing The Survivors to life.

“I couldn’t have really directed this series without Katie Robertson,’’ Nowlan says.

“I knew her work as an actor and I needed an assistant and she ended up shadowing me as a director as well as helming a side project in the series that we called the Bronte Art Project.

“I love her as a person, she’s very talented and she’s also a writer and a producer herself so she ended up playing a really critical role … she's a treasured friend now, for life. She’s obviously shot a lot in Tasmania too, on shows that she’s worked on including Deadloch and Rosehaven and she’s in Bay of Fires as well, coming up. I’d work with her anywhere in the world, not just in Tasmania. She’s the best.’’•

The Survivors, a six-part murder mystery series filmed in Tasmania, is set to air on Netflix on Friday, June 6. netflix.com