Wow! What a year – hugely topsy turvy, forced into a new world, left to the basics, and dealing with rapidly changing, new and uncontrollable circumstances. It has meant for all of us that life has been flipped on it’s head and the options of how we do life are changed, been put on pause, or come to an end.

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After almost 13 years overseas, at the end of March, I unexpectantly packed my bags and dismantled a happy life in Los Angeles to return home to Australia as Covid 19 was peaking and the borders began to close. Within 10 days of making a decision, my apartment was cleared, car sold hours before boarding a flight, no real chance for a sentimental farewell, just a dramatic outro to my next stop: quarantine in Sydney. I got put up in a flash hotel with all the trimmings. 14 days of much appreciated luxury and r’n’r. It was exactly what I needed, a sweet outcome indeed.

Creatively it’s been a hard year to make progress. What with relocating and going into lockdown there has been little to no chance to audition, and left to my own devices I’ve not felt a huge amount of mojo. It’s felt more about survival, regrouping and being kind to oneself whilst navigating the stormy seas as they’ve rolled in…and there’s been plenty.

On a positive note, I have signed with my first ever Aussie agent: Williams Management. And launched a comedy YouTube channel to delve into the character and writing stuff that I love and have been training in for years at Second City and Groundlings in LA. I also created a sketch called ‘Happy Ending‘ that was my first time writing and directing, shot at the end of 2019. It took a while to get finished, but we got there in the end and released it via YouTube with a good response.

Otherwise, I’ve been settling into a new home, exploring the surrounding neighbourhoods, taking a couple of online classes and rebuilding an indoor plant business I had in LA, named Calistags Plants.

I am excited, optimistic and deeply grateful to be back in Australia.

Here’s cheers to the new year – 2021, we’re coming for ya!!!