For many aspiring actors, the idea of “making it” feels tied to youth. You may have an image of enrolling in a prestigious drama degree straight out of high school, early credits, and a rapid climb up the industry ladder. But the reality is far less linear. Plenty of successful performers spend years hustling behind the scenes, juggling day jobs, or pursuing entirely different careers before landing their breakthrough roles.
Some of the most recognisable Australian names in film and television are actors who started late, proving there’s no single timeline for success. Whether it’s a slow burn built on persistence or a bold pivot from another profession, actors who got a late start often bring a depth of life experience that enriches their work onscreen and onstage.
If you’re an emerging performer wondering whether you’ve missed your moment, these stories of actors who gained recognition and esteem late offer a powerful reminder: The path into the industry is rarely straightforward, and it’s never too late to begin.
Sarah Snook
Aussie star Sarah Snook started landing roles with leading theatre companies straight out of graduating from NIDA in 2008, garnering further success with roles in a string of Australian films including Sisters of War (2010), These Final Hours (2013), and Predestination (2014) opposite Ethan Hawke.
It was not until she was cast in HBO’s massively popular drama series Succession at 30 years old, however, that her career was shot to all-new heights. From 2018 to 2023, Snook’s leading role as Siobhan “Shiv” Roy earned numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Speaking to Backstage magazine in 2022, Snook explained that most of the roles she plays involve a lot of detailed preparation behind the scenes, especially television characters. “What I’ve found most useful is going through and writing what happens for the scene, and then asking a whole bunch of questions so that when I come to do the scene, if you’re in the moment enough, you’re asking those questions and answering them as the character,” she says. “I found that really helpful for Shiv, and for other roles too.”
Off the back of Succession, Snook starred in the West End and Broadway productions of Australian director Kip Williams’ epic cine-theatre adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray (2024–2025), winning the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award for best lead actress in a play for her marathon turn playing all 26 characters.
Bryan Brown
One of Australia’s most prolific actors, Bryan Brown has appeared in nearly 100 film and television projects both locally and abroad, including major Hollywood movies such as Cocktail (1988) opposite Tom Cruise, Gorillas in the Mist (1989) opposite Sigourney Weaver, and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia (2008).
Brown discovered his passion for acting relatively early in life, but years of persistent hard work across minor roles went in before he caught his big break. After four years of doing amateur theatre in Sydney, he headed to England in the early 1970s and eventually landed roles at the National Theatre in London. “I think I found rejection quite easy because I’d been a salesman,” Brown told the Guardian in 2025 of this time.
Brown made his film debut in 1975 in the Aussie erotic mystery Scobie Malone, in which he played a policeman, and worked his way up through small parts in local productions He was eventually cast as the lead in the low-budget film Third Person Plural (1979).
A significant turning point in his career came with Bruce Beresford’s 1980 Australian biographical war drama Breaker Morant, a role that introduced him to international audiences at age 33.
Brown’s lead role in the TV miniseries A Town Like Alice (1981) was a huge international success, winning popularity in the United States. Soon after, he and co-star Helen Morse were reunited in the film Far East (1982). In 1983, at the age of 36, Brown was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his performance in the US television miniseries The Thorn Birds, which led to a number of international offers across the US and the UK.
Kitty Flanagan
From Eric Bana to Shane Jacobson, some of Australia’s most beloved entertainers started to gain recognition for their comedy careers before moving into acting. Fisk star Kitty Flanagan is one of the most impressive examples of that trajectory, especially since an entertainment career was not always her one-track goal.
As she recounts in her book 488 Rules For Life, Flanagan worked an assortment of odd jobs all over the country, even training and briefly working as a PE teacher before a five-year stint as a copywriter for an advertising agency. After she was fired from her advertising job, Flanagan picked up a bartending job at a hotel that hosted an open-mic night, and it was there that she decided to have a crack at stand-up.
Six months into doing comedy, Flanagan was spotted by the producer of sketch comedy series Full Frontal in late 1994, and the following year she joined the cast as both a writer and performer. She left in late 1996 to focus on her stand-up career, and continued to work across various comedic television programmes in Australia and the UK while touring her live shows to comedy festivals all over the world.
In 2013, then in her mid-40s, Flanagan was approached for her first ongoing dramatic role in the popular comedy series Utopia, and she went on to play Rhonda the public relations manager for five seasons.
But the height of her acting career arrived in 2021, when Flanagan was in her early 50s, with the first season of Fisk – the sitcom that Flanagan not only stars in but also co-created, co-writes, and co-directs. Premiering on ABC TV and also broadcast on Netflix (making it into the streamer’s top 10 shows in 10 countries) and by other outlets around the world, Season 1 of Fisk was followed by a second season in 2022 and a third season in 2024.
Flanagan’s work on the series, which revolves around the life of lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk (played by Flanagan), who returns to Melbourne and joins a small legal firm after her career and marriage fall apart, has gained her critical acclaim and awards, even nabbing her the Silver Logie for most popular actress in 2022 and 2023.
Speaking to ABC News in 2024, Flanagan said she never could have imagined winning a Logie when she was starting out as a stand-up comedian in the ’90s. The first time she pitched Fisk, she was turned down, being told her character was “too unlikeable.” If years of working in television had taught her anything, however, it’s that “you have to just be persistent,” she told ABC. “Each time you do a bit of work within [television], it’s not wasted. You learn something every time.”