Casting Guild of Australia: 2019 Rising Stars

The Casting Guild of Australia has today announced its 5th annual list of CGA Rising Stars.

The 2019 recipients are presented at the CGA Awards Ceremony in Melbourne today.

The 10 young stars are:

Bolude Watson (Hearts & Bones),
Joe Klocek (The Dry, Nowhere Boys),
Kavitha Anandasivam (The Hunting),
Mavournee Hazel (Neighbours, My Life Is Murder, Halifax: Retribution),
Morgan Davies (The End, The Girlfriend Experience),
Pacharo Mzembe (Monster Problems, Safe Harbour),
Phoenix Raei (Romper Stomper),
Shantae Barnes-Cowan (Total Control),
Tasia Zalar (Mystery Road)
Zoe Terakes (Janet King, Wentworth).

“Casting Directors are privileged to meet actors in the audition room very early in their careers and the members of the Casting Guild decided to create the Rising Stars to recognise and celebrate just some of the stand outs every year,” said CGA President, Kirsty McGregor.

“The talent in Australia is immense and every year it’s a difficult task for the CGA to narrow this list down to just 10. Past recipients have gone on to great success and we expect our ‘Class of 2019’ to be no different.”

Top row: L-R

Bolude Watson is a Nigerian-born American-raised actress who moved to Australia in 2014 before starring in Ché Baker’s cci-fi film Blue World Order. She most recently wrapped on Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones starring alongside Hugo Weaving.

Joe Klocek is best known for his appearances in the Logie Award-nominated ABC/Matchbox Pictures series Barracuda and Nowhere Boys and most recently wrapped Robert Connolly’s feature film The Dry – playing a young Aaron Falk opposite Eric Bana.

Kavitha Anandasivam was cast soon after graduating school as Amandip ‘Dip’ in SBS’ AACTA Award-nominated TV mini-series The Hunting.

A series regular on the iconic television programme Neighbours, Mavournee Hazel was recently seen in the drama series My Life is Murder and will soon star in Halifax: Retribution playing Jane Halifax’s daughter, Zoe Sailor.

Morgan Davies’ most recent lead roles include the enormously popular Series 2 of The Girlfriend Experience, a Starz Original Series, and the re-telling of iconic feature film Storm Boy alongside Jai Courtney.

Bottom row: L -R

Pacharo Mzembe has appeared in numerous TV and film roles including Channel Nine’s Here Come the Habib’s, ABC’s Harrow and SBS’s Safe Harbour and will next be seen in Paramount Pictures’ post-apocalyptic blockbuster Monster Problems.

Immigrating to Australia as a young child, Phoenix Raei, has appeared in numerous productions including Kriv Stenders’ Australia Day alongside Bryan Brown; Anthony LaPaglia and Ryan Corr starrer Below; Stan’s Romper Stomper; and Netflix’s Wentworth. He most recently wrapped on ABC’s Stateless, co-created by Cate Blanchett.

Shantae Barnes-Cowan made her screen debut in the television drama series Total Control, working alongside screen icon Deborah Mailman. She’ll next be seen in the espionage thriller Fallout, due to air on the ABC in 2020.

Tasia Zalar is best known for her role as Shevorne in ABC’s AACTA Award-winning series Mystery Road.

Zoe Terakes first appeared on our screens as Pearl Perati in ABC’s Janet King alongside Marta Dusseldorp and will next be seen in Bondi Slayer and Wentworth in 2020.