What has been the biggest challenge in your career so far? How did you overcome it?

I faced a lot of challenges, to be honest. Everything in my life before acting was me selling product, and in acting, I was the product, and I was not confident in myself doing it. I am a perfectionist, I am an engineer, so I was trying to figure out where the problem was. I realise now, that to be an actor, you need to have thick skin, as so many rejections, fears, so many things to go through. I questioned my own identity. I had no idea how to approach character, did not know what I was doing. But I did a lot of research and got help from many acting teachers until I realised the basics and started to have fun with it.

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My next big challenge was finding an acting agent. After acting school, I was naive. I did not know what industry was like! I got rejected by almost every agent in Sydney. I did not know what was missing. I showed some filmed scenes from school to agents, but all I heard was “no”. My looks are not what they are looking for, my talent not needed for the market, and there is not much I could do. And I took it personally a lot. Now I laugh at rejections, but back then, I was very vulnerable. I was keen, and I could not even get an agent! Then I got an extra agent as I had no choice, and I decided to start at rock bottom and work my way up. When I did extra work, it was massive eye-opening. I was on TV and commercials, and I observed the way directors work, how they block the scene, etc. I did that for about a year. I had so much energy to offer, so I decided to get a better showreel. I consulted with my acting coach, started experimenting with my strengths, made a decent showreel, went again through agents, again a lot of rejections until I got a little better agent. My standards were so low that I was happy having one line in the scene. I just wanted to be featured as a step-up. I felt I was ready. I started popping up on TV and commercials in non-speaking featured roles, and surprisingly my friends and family started to notice. I was getting attention from a few seconds of being on TV, I started enjoying that, but I was still unfulfilled. I wanted to open another door for more credits, yet I had no idea how to get cast. I had no idea how to show myself. So I kept working on the craft, did a lot of workshops about what agents and casting directors are looking for, practised a lot at home. My focus was to get a better agent. I wanted to be amazing to be noticed. I found auditions intimidating, so I ventured to master them. After building some credits, I targeted a high profile acting agent. I was fearless to approach as, by this time, I was used to “no”. I emailed them, called them up, kept asking for a meeting because I believed in them. And they finally agreed to meet me! I auditioned with a prepared monologue, showed my energy, and they took me on board. I was over the moon! One of the best days of my life! I started getting auditions and roles, even did a few episodes in a very popular show in Australia, some guest roles, commercials. I also did a lot of theatre shows, and that constant rehearsing helped me overcome my nerves. I haven’t done theatre in a while now as my strengths are in film.