From Canberra to Hollywood
Aussie actor Stef Dawson hits The Big Time after much dedicated training in Sydney
“I’ve been training for this since I was 13,” Canberra-born actress Stef Dawson recently told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s been a hard slog.”
It’s stardom she’s talking about, full-blooded Hollywood-style movie stardom. For Stef had landed a key role in the new two-movie adaptation of The Hunger Games: Mockinjay. Huge news, indeed: the first film in the ‘young adult’ franchise took $765 million at the international box office.
Part 1 was released in December 2014 and Part 2 in December 2015. And between these releases she’ll be seen playing the lead in two further independent movies — Creedmoria, a comedy, and The Paper Store, a revenge drama — both shot in and around New York.
The unknown Aussie newcomer will definitely have arrived.
While her red hair, blue eyes and elfin features ensured that Stef would be remembered by casting directors, her ‘overnight success’ had been carefully planned and driven by dedicated training and hard work.
Always mad-keen on acting, the Canberra Girls Grammar School student was driven by her mother to weekly acting classes in Sydney.
In 2005 she enrolled on the one-year Showreel Course at Screenwise Film and TV School, a boutique Sydney acting school offering specialist, career-focussed courses in performing for screens big and little.
Screenwise CEO and Principal Denise Roberts remembers the young Stef well. “She had the unique ability to back up her acting skills with confidence and passion while under pressure,” she says.
“There’s a lot of pressure when you’re young and you have to perform in front of the big guns.”
After her time with Screenwise, ever-focussed Stef attended professional workshops with AIPA, the Australian Institute for Performing Arts.
In 2009 this led to her winning the prestigious Blair Milan Memorial Scholarship, which assists actors to live and train for a year in America.
Now firmly based in Los Angeles, Stef did the rounds of auditions and try-outs. Small roles lead to a brief appearance in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). In the next two Hunger Games movies she’ll be playing one of the leads.
On receiving the big news, Stef contacted Screenwise with a note of encouragement to help inspire fellow students at the school:
“I hope this just inspires everyone at Screenwise not to give up on their dreams!!! Tell them to hang in there!!... Life changed forever. Thanks for your support and hope to see you sometime! xxx“
Frank Hatherley
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