Rhys Wakefield

Rhys Wakefield
Wakefield at Tropfest, 2013
Born	(1988-11-20) 20 November 1988 Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2000–present

Rhys Wakefield (born 20 November 1988) is an Australian actor. He is best known as Thomas Mollison in the 2008 film The Black Balloon,^[1] as Lucas Holden^[2] on Home and Away, and as the Polite Leader in The Purge.

Life and career

Wakefield was born in Cairns, Queensland, to a medical standards officer mother and a father who serves in the navy.^[3] Before appearing as Lucas in Home and Away, Wakefield had been acting for more than six years. He attended classes at McDonald College of Performing Arts where he won an acting scholarship in 2003.^[4] As well as performing in a number of school productions he appeared in numerous Shakespeare festivals and has worked with Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet.^[2]

Aside from attending McDonald College he attended an acting course at the Zenith Theatre in 2003. Wakefield finished Year 12 at McDonald College of Performing Arts in 2006.^[5]

His first professional acting role was an uncredited appearance in the film Bootmen in 2000. This was later followed by a television appearance playing Brad, a guest star in the 2001 series Don't Blame Me for which he appeared in two episodes, Best Foot Forward and The Dingo Made Me Do It. Wakefield played his first leading role in a feature film in The Black Balloon as Thomas Mollison which led to a nomination for Best Actor in a Feature Film by the Australian Film Institute and the Australian Film Critics Circle. The film opened on March 6, 2008 in Australia after premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, where it received a Crystal Bear as the best feature-length film in the Generation 14plus category.^[6]

Wakefield co-wrote and directed the short film A Man Walks Into a Bar which was a finalist at the 2013 Tropfest International Short Film Festival in Sydney.^[7] His screenplay, entitled Please Close the Gate was a feature finalist at the 2016 Cinequest Film Festival Screenwriting competition^[8] and was officially selected for the Beverly Hills Film festival that same year.^[9]

Deadline.com recently announced that Wakefield will make his directorial debut with the feature film Untitled Hollywood Hills Project starring Nick Cannon. Wakefield wrote the script which he developed with producer William Day Frank. Principal photography is scheduled for early 2017.^[10]

Home and Away

In August 2005, Wakefield got his first regular TV role playing Lucas Holden in the long running Australian Soap opera Home and Away. His character was the youngest child of the Holden family until his dad Tony and stepmother Rachel had his baby brother Harry. His performance in series led to a Logie Nomination for the Best New Talent in 2006. During his time on the show he was involved in a controversial storyline which led the Australian broadcasting regulator (ACMA) to conclude that scenes had breached the Australian broadcasting code, a finding which was responsible for the series being re-classified as PG.^[11]

Filmography

Films

Television

Short films

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhys Wakefield.

• Rhys Wakefield at the Internet Movie Database