Will next-gen NIDA grads join former alumni Cate, Baz, Toni and Hugo?

Next Friday, inside the world-acclaimed National Institute of Dramatic Art’s Parade Theatre in Sydney’s Kensington, the 22-strong Class of 2025 – whittled down from 1000 applicants – will stage their “showcase”. After three gruelling years, the mostly 20-somethings will sing, dance and act in a series of vignettes before an invitation-only audience of potential agents, talent scouts and industry heavyweights.

They’re a diverse cohort. Quinn Chambers from suburban Brisbane gave up a carpentry apprenticeship to be there. Nyasha Ogden, a Larrakia woman and yoga enthusiast from Darwin, wants to represent First Nations people through her art. Charlie Chandler, a fifth-generation outback stockman, quit the dust to act.

“We’re not looking for great actors,” says NIDA’s head of acting, John Bashford. “We’re looking for people with an innate sense of storytelling who can elicit an emotional response [from their audience]. Along with technique, we teach them stamina, resourcefulness, resilience and how to create opportunities in an industry that’s notoriously tough.”

In June, The Hollywood Reporter ranked NIDA the world’s 14th-best drama school – the only Australian entry in a list of 25. Its famous former alumni include Cate Blanchett, Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Sarah Snook, Baz Luhrmann, Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh.

Within a year of graduating in 2023, Jack Patten had landed the titular role in the new blockbuster TV series Robin Hood. Meanwhile, Class of 2018’s Yerin Ha will be taking on the female lead, Sophie Baek (Benedict’s love interest), in the next series of Bridgerton, airing on Netflix in January.

In the 2008 documentary Acting Class of 1977, Mel Gibson – now reportedly worth an estimated $650 million – revealed to writer, director and fellow graduate Sally McKenzie that he’d hated the tap-dancing classes and was almost “kicked out” but felt, ultimately, that he’d been “exposed to things that I never, ever would have ... otherwise”.

“We were taught to make up stories, get with friends ... create something,” Baz Luhrmann told American 60 Minutes in 2024. “I had an idea that I would take the Greek myth and … set it in the world of ballroom dancing. That little play went for about 30 minutes. It was called Strictly Ballroom.”

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