Better Date than Never: meet the cast

Not all dating shows are the same.

Six part ABC series Better Date than Never follows 5 diverse singles as they take a huge step into the dating world.

With a little help from the producers, they embark on blind dates …connections will be made, hearts will break, love will blossom.

Better Date than Never is produced by Northern Picctures, creators of Love on the Spectrum.

Olivia
“I’ve always wanted someone special in my life”
Olivia is a gregarious, high achieving 22-year-old woman living with her mum and her dog Dolly in Queensland. She is a dancer, an actor, a public speaker, and has addressed the United Nations as an advocate for people with Down Syndrome. Despite having conquered every challenge she has set herself or been faced with, she is yet to achieve her dream of finding love.

Charles
“I have no idea how to pursue a relationship”
Charles is a 27-year-old international student from China who came to Sydney looking for more than an education. A proud gay man, Charles embraces his sexuality, but an aversion to the hookup culture of dating apps has scared him off. He wants a loving relationship but has no idea how to get started trying to find it.

Nirvali
“I’d like to be in love, even if it hurts”
Nirvali is an intriguing, creative 20-yearold woman with many talents waiting to be discovered, but social anxiety has been holding her back. She describes herself as a hermit with a tendency to never leave the house, and she has never even come close to going on a date. Despite her anxiety she refuses to live her life in fear, and is determined to start her dating journey. She never does anything in half measures, and sees diving head first into the experience as the best way to take on her search for love.

Dianne
“Everybody has a soulmate, I’ve just not found mine yet”
Dianne is a 68-year-old farmer seeking love in regional NSW. As a transgender woman living in a rural area she has found the search for love extremely difficult, and since transitioning in recent years has yet to go on a date. She has set up multiple organisations to help support the local LGBTQ+ community, but has yet to find her own special someone.

Liv
“Falling in love would be really magical. It would be out of this world”
Liv is a 20-year-old self-confessed romantic who is in love with love. With a scrapbook full of wedding pictures, she has been preparing her happily ever after her whole life, she’s just missing Mr Right. Diagnosed with Cerebral palsy, Liv thinks her disability has held her back from dating, with social isolation from her peers meaning she has yet to start dating. Liv wants to meet someone who shares her passion for family, she wants a husband, children, “the whole shebang”.

Director’s Statement:

This series come from a desire to tell stories in the dating and relationship space that feel more ‘real’, and that give audiences more of a representation of the human experience as a whole. The broad concept of the series is very simple, following a group of single love seekers as they date for the first time. This felt like a great way to anchor the series and include participants who all share a common journey, despite the very different stories and life experiences they may have. We hope that this series balances the representation of a broad range of people from many walks of life, without anyone feeling like they don’t belong.

As a production team we found matches for our participants to date, and our agenda was very clear, look for people we think they will get along with. If romance comes along, that’s a bonus. To me this series is the antithesis of the ‘hot people on islands’ dating shows, and I hope audiences will come along for the ride without the need for heavy conflict and villains. I’m very grateful first and foremost to the participants for sharing their stories, and grateful to the ABC for believing in us and commissioning this new series. It’s a rare thing as a filmmaker to work with a broadcaster that is so supportive when it comes to setting a tone and style for a new show, and once again we had a really positive experience.

I hope that audiences will enjoy spending time with our participants as much as I did!
– Cian O’Clery

8pm Tuesdays on ABC.