There's No Business Like Show Business

CASSIE TWEMLOW

Guy Edmonds always knew he wanted to pursue a career in The Arts. Over the last 20 years, he’s moved from acting to writing and directing screenplays. With a firm grip on the industry, Guy can now add literary writer and family man to his accomplishments.

At St Peters, Guy was a keen participant in Drama classes and a member of the Stage Band and Wind Ensembles from Years 9-12. Graduating from his Senior year at St Peters in 2000, Guy was close to pursuing a career in Music or even Allied Health. Thanks to a particularly supportive and encouraging Drama Teacher, however, Guy spent the next few years studying screen production and then, eventually, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at QUT.

Straight after graduation, Guy moved to Sydney. He quickly established himself on Australian TV shows All Saints and Home and Away, and was also in the 2011 series of Underbelly. In 2006, Guy met, and became great friends with, fellow QUT graduate, Matt Zeremes. Over 15 years later and the two of them are thick as thieves, having starred in and co-created many TV shows, plays and short films. They did ‘pilot season’ in LA a couple of times and are currently working on their second season of the Emmy Award-winning children’s TV series, Hardball, which premiered on ABC in 2019. Guy and Matt wrote, created and directed the series.

Holding the Man, a story about two Australian school boys who fall in love despite relentless hurdles, was one of the plays Guy and Matt worked on together. The pair starred as the lead characters in the world premiere production, and Guy received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Tim Conigrave, a gay actor-turnedplaywright who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1992. The production spanned more than four years, travelling around Australia and to London’s West End. In a way, it embodied Guy’s school-day dreams coming true.

“Whilst reading The Removalists [by David Williamson] at school I remember thinking, ‘it would be so cool to be an original cast member of a play’.”

With Holding the Man under his belt, Guy went on to be an original member of five world premiere stage productions. These included Michael Gow’s Toy Symphony and David Williamson’s Rupert, based on the life of Rupert Murdoch.

“The Melbourne Theatre company put on Rupert to a sold-out season,” Guy reflects. “It did really well there so we toured it to Washington DC and played the main theatre at The Kennedy Centre.”

He said the role was ‘life changing’ but possibly not for the reasons you may think—on set, Guy met and worked alongside his now-wife, Haiha Le.

With plenty of on- and off-screen roles up his sleeve, Guy still has an abundance of ideas for shows that he hopes to share in the future.

“I equate show ideas to a nature documentary where the crabs are born and there’s thousands of them trying to make it to the ocean without getting crushed by cars or eaten by birds. In the end, about three percent of them make it to the ocean and that’s enough to continue the cycle.”

This analogy comes from Guy as he explains that even though Hardball got off the ground, for every show that’s successful, there’s another five or six that never see the light of day. Having worked in advertisements, corporate videos, short films and as a voiceover artist, Guy emphasises that you need persistence to be successful in the industry.

Pictured: Guy and his now-wife, HaiHa Le, on the set of Dream House (image used with permission from Clare Hawley).

“It takes resilience and perseverance to make it and nothing comes easy. You need to keep knocking on doors and getting used to being knocked back,” he says, adding, however, that, “There is no better feeling than getting a ‘yes’ to the show you just pitched or to the role you auditioned for. It’s very rewarding.”

Currently, Guy is working on a series of ‘wacky’ books aimed at Upper Primary students. Zoo Crew, to be launched by Scholastic later this year, is about a school populated by animals. He hopes to visit the College to promote the books in the next year. Stay tuned!