RISING TALENT
RISING TALENT 2024
The IF Rising Talent list for 2024 is made up of people we think will shift and lead our industry into the future. Some are newer faces, others have recently stepped into senior roles where they’re now making waves. We think you’ll want to work with all of them. We put this list together through a public call out and extensive insdustry outreach. This year, we had a staggering 692 names put forward. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent that’s out there in Australia.
ACTORS
GEORGIA FLOOD
NGALI SHAW
Georgia Flood was most recently cast in the role of Savannah in Peacock series Apples Never Fall, alongside Annette Bening, Sam Neill and Alison Brie. Prior to this she spent most of 2022 filming the female lead role for series Nautilus, based on the Jules Verne novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Her feature film work includes action thriller Blacklight, starring Liam Neeson, and on stage, Flood recently played Celia in As You Like It for the Melbourne Theatre Company, directed by Simon Phillips. Her first international role was in 2019 as the lead in the Lifetime series American Princess, produced by Jamie Denbo and Jenji Kohan. In TV, Flood had a lead role in ABC miniseries Anzac Girls, for which she received a Best Actress Nomination at the Golden Nymph Awards in Monte Carlo, and main cast or recurring roles in Wentworth, Home & Away, House Husbands, Tangle and Here Come the Habibs. Guest appearances include Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You, True Story with Hamish and Andy and Talkin’ Bout Your Generation. Flood is represented by CP Artist Management in Australia and the Gersh Agency in the US.
Ngali Shaw is from the Wiradjuri, Murawari and Kunja tribes. He made his television debut in Seven’s RFDS in 2021, and went on to star opposite Sam Neill and Marta Dusseldorp in Foxtel series The Twelve. He will next be seen in the TV adaptation of Ladies in Black for ABC and Stan feature film Windcatcher. In 2023, Shaw made his theatre debut in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Jacky, and he’ll return to the MTC stage in 2024 to lead 37, directed by Isaac Drandic. As a professionally trained dancer, Shaw has learnt tap, ballet, hip hop, classical, modern contemporary and Capoeira. He was selected for the NSW Public Schools Aboriginal Dance Company and invited to participate in a one-week training camp with Bangarra Dance Company. Under dance teacher Doug Gordon, Ngemba and Yuwalayaay Custodian, he has trained in Aboriginal/Indigenous dance since 2017. Shaw is proud of his culture and identity and wishes to inspire the next generation to dance and keep their stories alive. He is repped by Nathan Culliver Management.
HOA XUANDE
BERNIE VAN TIEL
Hoa Xuande is best known for his role of Lin in Netflix’s 2021 live-action remake of Cowboy Bebop. His other screen credits include Paramount+’s Last King of the Cross, SBS’s Hungry Ghosts, ABC’s Ronny Chieng International Student, Foxtel’s Fighting Season and Top of the Lake 2: China Girl, ABC’s Cleverman and Black Comedy. Xuande has also appeared in the feature films A Stitch in Time, OtherLife and Careless Love. In 2022, Xuande was announced as the star of the upcoming HBO/A24 television series The Sympathizer, starring opposite Robert Downey Jr and Sandra Oh. The series will be released internationally in April 2024. Xuande is a WAAPA graduate and is represented by Morrissey Management in Australia and Industry Entertainment in the US.
Bernie Van Tiel (aka BVT) is a Sydney based actor, voice over artist, hip hop/R&B artist, beatboxer and producer. She will next be seen on SBS’s Swift Street, alongside Tanzyn Crawford and Cliff Curtis, and her other screen credits include SBS’s Erotic Stories, Amazon’s Class of ‘07, Del Kathryn Barton feature Blaze, ABC Studio International’s Reef Break, web series The Mother Load and short films Yellow and Risen. Van Tiel played the lead in 2017 web series Jade of Death, for which she received Best Female Performance at the International Academy of Web Television Awards. As a queer person of colour, Van Tiel’s mission is to make the marginalised feel seen and represented through her art whilst bearing her culture as a future ancestor. She was named a Rising Star by the Casting Guild of Australia in 2023. Van Tiel is repped by Sophie Jermyn Management.
(Photo credit: Rebecca Hitch) 14 INSIDEFILM #215 DEC–JAN 2024
KARTANYA MAYNARD Kartanya Maynard is a proud Truwulway and Nunga actor. She recently joined the second season of Netflix’s Heartbreak High as a series regular and can be seen in Amazon series Deadloch, ABC’s The Messenger and in the ABC/CBS series Gold Diggers. She was named one of the Casting Guild of Australia’s Rising Stars in 2023. In 2024, Maynard will make her mainstage debut at the Sydney Theatre Company in Stolen.
In 2020, she performed in Archipelago’s production of Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree alongside Marthaa Dusseldorp. Residing in Hobart, Maynard is also a singer with a Bachelor in Music who has performed at music festivals across the country. Maynard is repped by Kubler Auckland Management.
