Biography
Sidique Swaray was born in Guinea West Africa in 1998, and moved to Australia in 2004 with his father. Eventually he was reunited with his mother and sister, who followed suit down under in 2008. He has grown up with a great interest and creative expression in the performing arts industry, and has been involved in several performances designed for the school community nationwide.
Sidique has been dancing for as long as he can remember, having been involved in various competitions, festivals and youth events. He has busted hip-hop and breakdancing moves with an amazing ensemble of boys for School Spectacular for 4 years in a row. In addition, Sidique was involved in a prestigious competition called Wakakirri Performing Arts, versing other schools as both dancer and public speaker. He performed in an ensemble in front of an audience nearly totalling 8000 people at Sydney Entertainment Centre.
For Refugee Week, Sidique was proud to be school ambassador in a team that was key to raising awareness about the struggles faced by refugees and asylum seekers. He also served the student council as a representative, where local political matters are close to his heart.
On the acting side, Sidique’s only but life-changing screen credit to date was to work alongside Australian veteran Alex Dimitriades and award-winning director Krive Stenders of “Red Dog” and “Kill Me Three Times” fame in the SBS’s gritty 2015 drama “The Principal”. It has inspired and furthered his engagement within the entertainment field, giving him a chance to build upon his dramatic skills while learning more about the fact. He counts his parents’ support as being integral to his pursuits during and outside of school hours – and beyond, both professionally and personally.
Biography
Nicholas Foustellis is an Australian-born actor of Greek ancestry, by second generation.
Having worked professionally in the industry since 2013, he graduated with a Bachelor of Performance degree from AADA (2012). In 2014 he did the Acting Graduate Course with Bell Shakespeare and has since worked with some of the most respected leaders, teachers and mentors in the industry such as Toby Schmitz, Leith McPherson, Kevin Jackson, and Les Chantery.
The seed for acting began with a Shylock monologue from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” for which he received perfect marks by the Year 9 Head of Drama. Since then credits have included AADA’s productions of “The Tempest” (2012), “Tiresias” (2012) and “The Skriker” (2011) as well as NSW Arts North West Grant’s “Romeo and Juliet” (2020), Extended Play Co.’s “Antigone” (2019) and New Theatre’s “Once in Royal David’s City” (2019). Nicholas has graced the television screen in the following sitcom “Here Comes the Habibs!” on Nine Network (2016) and “Deadly Women” on the Discovery channel (2015).
However, Nicholas was perhaps most known for Nick the Barista: having been scouted from 2000 applicants to be the face of Seven Network’s flagship breakfast program “Sunrise”, sponsored by Michel’s Patisserie. As their live spokesperson, he was on air everyday serving famous guests the likes of Katy Perry, then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Wayans Brothers and Guy Pearce as well as engaging with the hosts and in ongoing sketches with the Cash Cow.
Nicholas may have worked steadily in television film and theatre, but he is about to be in the highly anticipated 2022 Untitled Amazon Project.
Biography
Springing out of a dynamic collision of the performing arts, film and theatre in human rights, David Mark Farrington is a unique actor, writer-director and creative producer who has emerged on the Australian landscape in recent years working between the frames of his production company and the mainstream industry.
A British-Australian working in London and Melbourne over the past decade, David pioneered at a national level the role of live performance in theatre-in-education for young LGBTQIA+ people. After working in documentaries for LGBTQIA+ communities in London, in 2013 he established Australia's first funded experimental theatre company social enterprise, Universal Difference, for creating equality & inclusion for sexuality and gender different Australians thru film and live performance.
Spotlighted early on in his dramatic art training as truly 'an actor to watch', David made his significant stage acting debut at several of Victoria's high-profile state festivals with major productions in the Castlemaine State and Midsumma festivals in addition to new works in the Melbourne Fringe festival. Other than the Eagles Nest Theatre Schools Program he has toured with his funded company performing in ensemble works in school tours, national conferences and regional festivals throughout Victoria.
His work has enjoyed international interest in Canada with the 2013 dramedy “Include the Rainbow”. In 2014-2015, he received an Arts Victoria Actors Residency Grant and HEY Grant for improvisation and performance work with primary schools throughout Victoria.
David’s screen acting debut began with an even bigger bang with his first two feature films “Innuendo” and “Westermaark Effect” by Finnish director Saara Lamberg. The former was selected into the centrepoint of international cinema—the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2017 and 2020, as well as winning the illustrious Fine Arts Film Festival in 2019 in the US with global distribution acquired via Umbrella Entertainment.
In 2021, David directed and acted in the arthouse documentary “Queer@Cannes” filmed in France, framed at exposing the realities of contemporary ‘queerness’, equality and inclusivity in the international film industry. This won the Grand Jury Prize at the Direct Monthly Film Festival in the US and Best Experimental Film at the Pune International Queer film Festival in India and was selected into 13 mainstream and queer film festivals across Europe and North America in 2021-2022. Building on this success, David received a Writers Victoria and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust Grant to direct an interactive digital and live art show across Victoria exploring inclusive LGBTQIA story telling for writers of all genres.
2022 heralded a dynamic of year of new work in Europe and Australia. The year began with casting in a British mockumentary filmed in France; attending the “Westermaarck Effect” debut at the Cannes Film Festival as an actor; working on projects in London and at Monkey Barrel Comedy in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; followed by an invitation to showcase “Queer@Cannes” as a guest speaker at the Borders Queer Film Festival in Scotland.
In late 2022, David returned to Australia and the stage, playing the lead role of a traumatised truckie in the innovative cabaret “Truck” directed by Koshka's Kat Pengally, funded by Regional Arts Victoria as part of the Nati Frinj Biennial.
David is an intuitive character actor by nature, driven by his deep love of the craft, a commitment to work hard and an ethos to always learn more as a contemporary working artist. His natural eccentricity, brooding intensity and flair for experimentation has given him a distinctive presence on stage or set as a versatile and dependable character actor across a diversity of genre's and formats, On the other side of the lens, his directorial style is arresting and compelling, as a captivating documentary maker, who energetically and playfully asks the big questions about the changing nature of our contemporary queer reality.