Expect great things from these 10 up-and-coming Aussie thespians.
Australia might have given the world the likes of Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Chris Hemsworth, but that doesn't mean Hollywood's appetite for world-beating actors from Down Under is abating. Here are 10 newcomers brimming with star quality who are poised to join such illustrious company.
Alex Russell
1. ALEX RUSSELL
''When I was six years old I wanted to be like Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter,'' he says, with a sheepish laugh.
''When I was six years old I wanted to be like Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter,'' he says, with a sheepish laugh.
Amber Clayton
2. AMBER CLAYTON
From Ivanhoe, Victoria.
Where you've seen her Three Rivers, currently screening late on Ten.
Where you should look out for her TV movie Fatal Honeymoon, Aussie sci-fi flick Crawlspace.
When a rising actor finds themselves working opposite a bona fide legend in the field, it can be hard to know how to address them.
Clayton experienced this when playing Harvey Keitel's screen daughter Tina in Fatal Honeymoon - and ended up with a surreal solution.
''He's a method actor to the bone, so … in rehearsals, Harvey asked if he could start calling me 'Tina' and if I would start calling him 'dad', so we would get used to the sound and feeling of it,'' Clayton says.
She hasn't just been learning from screen icons. Scoring a role on US medical drama Three Rivers a couple of years ago, she thought her career was off to a flier - only for the show to be cancelled after its first season.
''It is a constant roller-coaster … I have chosen a career that has no guarantees; it's all about picking yourself up and dusting yourself off.''
Brenton Thwaites
3. BRENTON THWAITES
From Cairns, Queensland.
Where you've seen him Home & Away, Foxtel's SLiDE and in the lead role of TV movie Blue Lagoon: The Awakening.
Where you should look out for him Taking on Angelina Jolie's eponymous evil sorceress as Prince Charming in Maleficent.
Brenton Thwaites's life has been a bit of a fairytale of late - on screen and off, given he's filming the Sleeping Beauty update Maleficent opposite Angelina Jolie.
''For my first day on set I was like a little boy on the first day of school: scared, nervous and intimidated. But it did become a place of excitement and learning.''
It wasn't so long ago that Thwaites was 16 and, he says, ''way too cool to do drama''. Then an actor friend encouraged him to audition for the lead in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet. ''I got the role and that was it - hooked!'' he says.
As he's the latest in a long line of successful Home & Away alumni, we have to ask: is there something in the water in Summer Bay? ''Yes,'' Thwaites says. ''They put leading-man syrup all throughout the bay. Haha!''
Anna Lise Phillips
4. ANNA LISE PHILLIPS
From Darwin, Northern Territory.
Where you've seen her On the Australian stage and screen, most notably recently in Animal Kingdom and TV series Crownies.
Where you should look out for her In one of the year's most keenly anticipated TV shows, Revolution.
You say you want a Revolution? Anna Lise Phillips certainly did - well, at least a role in the hot new series - but never expected it, even after an audition recorded in Sydney resulted in her flying to Los Angeles to ''test'' for pilot-episode director Jon Favreau.
''About three weeks later I was in Atlanta, Georgia, shooting the new J.J. Abrams pilot with the director of Iron Man [Favreau].''
It's an exciting new phase after a successful career in her native country but not something Phillips always wanted to do. ''I had a little dalliance with LA about 11 years ago and after the 100th Botoxed freak informed me that I had to go to the right parties to get a job, I kissed my boyfriend goodbye and flew home to happiness.
''Over the last few years I have been craving something more - a deeper experience, a chance to become a better actor. My visions included adventures in the US.''
Alex Williams
5. ALEX WILLIAMS
From Perth, Western Australia.
Where you've seen him Channel Ten adverts for the TV movie on Julian Assange's early years, Underground.
Where you should look out for him That very film because he is playing the role of a lifetime: the WikiLeaks founder himself.
Many actors don't seem to have to work as hard at their craft when they're younger - some get to coast a little on the back of their charisma and good looks as they learn.
No such luck for Alex Williams. He's in at the deep end with his first major screen role, as Julian Assange in Underground.
''If you are ever given a character with an IQ of 180, it's always going to present a challenge,'' Williams says. ''Luckily for me, I had people like [co-stars] Rachel Griffiths, Anthony LaPaglia, as well as [director] Rob Connolly, to keep me in check.''
Did he learn anything special from his glamorous co-stars? Or even from Assange himself?
''Of course … Countless times I'd get back from shooting, turn on the news and there was the real guy.
''As for my co-stars, it's a pretty similar situation: if you're working with people of their calibre every day, you just sit there and pray some of it rubs off on you.''
Michelle Vergara Moore
6. MICHELLE VERGARA MOORE
From Sunbury, Victoria.
Where you've seen her Most likely on the Australian stage, in exciting productions such as Red Stitch's The Motherf---er with the Hat.
Where you should look out for her Steven Soderbergh's The Bitter Pill. ABC series Time of Our Lives.
When someone as powerful as the prolific, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh casts you in one of his movies, you know you must be doing something right.
''I filmed The Bitter Pill in New York and because it was my first US project, with scenes alongside Rooney Mara and Jude Law, I was super nervous,'' Moore says. ''But Steven embodies a certain ease and friendliness that made the experience really effortless and enjoyable.''
It's a long way from the nightly workout of playing ''a ballsy, no-holds-barred drug-addict who says some of the filthiest language I've ever come across'' in the confronting play The Motherf---er with the Hat. But then, so is one of Moore's other actorly ambitions.
''I do have a passion for Shakespeare,'' she says. ''I would love the opportunity to do Lady Macbeth or Cleopatra.''
Stephen Peacocke
7. STEPHEN PEACOCKE
From Dubbo, NSW.
Where you've seen him Playing one of those tattooed surfies (alongside Brenton Thwaites) in Home & Away.
Where you should look out for him Everywhere in a couple of years, if the buzz around him proves to be true.
We've heard so many rumours lately about Stephen Peacocke. Apparently, not only did he recently audition for Steven Spielberg, he is also being thought of, in certain powerful circles, as potentially the next Chris ''Thor'' Hemsworth. Like a seasoned professional, however, Peacocke is playing his cards close to his chest.
''At this stage of my career, my closest encounter with Steven Spielberg comes every time his name fades into the credits of Saving Private Ryan,'' he says. ''My agents seem to think I have something that might translate to an American audience one day down the track – which is really encouraging for me to know – but that's a while away yet.
''I'm keen to stay with Home & Away for as long as they'll have me ... [but] if someone's willing to give me a shot beyond this show, I'll work bloody hard for them.''
Penelope Mitchell
8. PENELOPE MITCHELL
From Prahran, Victoria.
Where you've seen her Short films such as Green Eyed; guest spots on TV shows Rush and Offspring.
Where you should look out for her American werewolf series Hemlock Grove; Aussie thriller 6Plots.
For someone whose career in Australia involved, in her words, ''a couple of independent features and a few bit parts in television'', Penelope Mitchell has found the transition to her current job, as Dougray Scott's screen daughter on big-budget Hollywood TV show Hemlock Grove, ''slightly overwhelming''.
''For example, I picked up my chair the other day out of simple convenience and was swiftly reprimanded by 'the chair guy' on account of stealing his job,'' she says.
''Sometimes I really can't help giggling to myself at the sheer absurdity of it all.''
It certainly beats studying law, as she found out on her first day of orientation week at the University of Melbourne a few years back.
''I ended up enrolling in every theatre group I could find ... My body was yearning so badly for catharsis, or freedom, or whatever it was burning inside of me, that I desperately sought any means possible to get back into my body and start feeling again.''
Lachlan Buchanan
9. LACHLAN BUCHANAN
From Maleny, Queensland.
Where you've seen him Regularly in Aussie show Blue Water High; occasionally in American series Hung and No Ordinary Family.
Where you should look out for him In big-screen comedy Feed the Dog opposite tween superstar Selena Gomez and horror flick Muck.
Lachlan Buchanan had to think on hisfeet when he was signed to his American agency during a trip to NewYork's Tribeca Film Festival a few years ago.
''They asked me when I was moving here,'' he says. ''I had no plans at the time so I just quickly told them, 'At the end of the year.' And that was that. I was lucky enough to book the very first audition I went for in LA, an indie film called Arcadia Lost, so that gave me confidence. But it definitely was a scary thing when I was just a kid from the Sunshine Coast, suddenly thrust into the madness of LA.''
While you can take the boy out of Australia, you can't take the cheeky, Aussie out of the boy. ''I want to always be able to keep exploring new characters and great writing ... and if some travelling comes along with certain jobs, that's fine by me, too.''
Jessica Tovey
10. JESSICA TOVEY
From Petersham, NSW.
Where you've seen her On the small screen in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo and Underbelly: The Golden Mile.
Where you should look out for her On the big screen in Two Mothers, alongside Naomi Watts, Robin Wright and Ben Mendelsohn.
''Honestly, I never have had any real desire to work in any other profession,'' she says. ''Why be a rocket scientist when I can play one today and then be a cop or an Amazonian warrior the next?''
Like many actors, Tovey also hopes to direct some day, ''but right now I'm just observing different directors' approaches to projects''. Anyway, she says, ''this industry doesn't really allow for long-term planning. But that's half the fun.''
Class of 2011: Where are they now?
Elizabeth Debicki made Stephan Elliott's A Few Best Men a bit easier to watch but we're still more excited about seeing her in Baz Luhrmann's epic The Great Gatsby next year. Similarly, while we're still waiting to see Alice Englert in Roland Joffe's Singularity, we're encouraged to note she also has Beautiful Creatures, co-starring Brit acting royalty Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson, in the proverbial can.
We actually got a good look at Bella Heathcote's big international break, entrancing Johnny Depp's vampire across the centuries in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, and Meyne Wyatt and Ryan Corr turned up in a couple of Aussie hits - the former in the crowd-pleasing The Sapphires, the latter in Not Suitable for Children. Corr can also be seen alongside this year's Next Big Thing, Penelope Mitchell, in 6 Plots before the end of the year as well as on stage (see Page 11).
On the small screen, Kiruna Stamell's character gave Warwick Davis more chances than he deserved in Ricky Gervais's and Stephen Merchant's Life's Too Short, and Anna McGahan scored a plum role on hit drama House Husbands. Ben Schumann had a good run on the third season of Tangle.
Younger readers will have been enjoying Tim Pocock's work on TV show Dance Academy, while older ones can look forward to seeing him soon in Australian war film Forbidden Ground. And Jess Harris scored an AACTA nomination for her acting on cult comedy Twentysomething (which she also wrote and co-created).
We actually got a good look at Bella Heathcote's big international break, entrancing Johnny Depp's vampire across the centuries in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, and Meyne Wyatt and Ryan Corr turned up in a couple of Aussie hits - the former in the crowd-pleasing The Sapphires, the latter in Not Suitable for Children. Corr can also be seen alongside this year's Next Big Thing, Penelope Mitchell, in 6 Plots before the end of the year as well as on stage (see Page 11).
On the small screen, Kiruna Stamell's character gave Warwick Davis more chances than he deserved in Ricky Gervais's and Stephen Merchant's Life's Too Short, and Anna McGahan scored a plum role on hit drama House Husbands. Ben Schumann had a good run on the third season of Tangle.
Younger readers will have been enjoying Tim Pocock's work on TV show Dance Academy, while older ones can look forward to seeing him soon in Australian war film Forbidden Ground. And Jess Harris scored an AACTA nomination for her acting on cult comedy Twentysomething (which she also wrote and co-created).
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