ACTOR
The powerful play “Fortune & Men’s Eyes” by Canadian playwright, drag queen and theatre director John Herbert inspired Neil to cancel his intention to study law and instead pursue a career in the performing arts. Neil opted to study with The Flinders University Drama Centre and in the 4 years he took to complete his BA(Hons) majoring in English Literature, Philosophy & Drama, Neil got to ride the wave of Don Dunstan’s cultural renaissance. Neil was engaged with The South Australian Theatre Company under George Ogilvie, opened The Space with Wal Cherry’s “The Fantasticks”, performed with Little Patch Children’s Theatre who staged his first musical play “Australian Born, Australian Bred” and toured the state with The South Australian Arts Council.
Having worked with David Kendall and Jack Hibberd on the world premiere of Jack’s play “The Les Darcy Show” as part of the Adelaide Festival, and having directed Jack’s “White With Wire Wheels”, Neil was enticed back to Melbourne where he accepted the role of actor/director in residence at Melbourne University. This gave him the opportunity to accept roles in short student films and Crawford television productions: “Cop Shop”, “The Sullivans”, “Carson’s Law” and “The Flying Doctors” while working in cabaret and theatre at John Pinder’s ‘Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant’ and Ralph Kerle’s ‘Flying Trapeze’. Neil created the highly successful ‘Busking With Brel’ for the Last Laugh and later for the Nimrod in Sydney. ‘The Anthill’, the MTC and The Church took him on to contemporary and challenging new interpretations of such plays as Dorothy Hewitt’s “This Old Man Comes Rolling Home”, Jack Hibberd’s “Odyssey of a Prostitute” and a new vision for Lawler’s “The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” which he was to revive later with Robyn Nevin for the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Neil auditioned for Hal Prince and subsequently embarked on a national tour of “Evita”. Then came Cameron Macintosh’s “Oklahoma” with Oscar Hammerstein’s son James directing, followed by the original Australian production of “Les Miserables” directed by Royal Shakespeare Company’s Trevor Nunn to complete Neil’s commitment to big, long running musicals.
Neil continued to make television appearances in award winning commercials and series such as “Rafferty’s Rules”, “A Country Practice”, “Whose Baby”, “The Henderson Kids”, “The Fast Lane”, “Embassy’, “Studio 86’, “The Keepers”, “Alice To Nowhere”, “In Between”, The AFI winning short film “Feathers”, George Miller’s “Bushfire Moon”, “Col’n Carpenter”, “Good Vibrations”, “Boys from the Bush”, “Snowy”, “Phoenix”, “Janus”, “Ocean Girl”, “Law of the Land”, HBO’s “In Pursuit of Honour”, “Snowy River: The McGregor Saga”, “The Feds”, “Corelli”, “Flipper”, the film “Brilliant Lies”, “Stingers”, “The Secret Life of Us”, “McLeod’s Daughters”, “Something In The Air”, “Court of the Lonely Royals” and his numerous credits of more recent years.
Neil has been the recipient of AFI AWARD (Australian Writers and Art Directors) and Clio awards for outstanding performance, is an accomplished musician and previously established Melbyrne Management where he gained valuable practical knowledge and experience negotiating recording, performance and touring contracts.
Neil is excited by the prospect of collaborating on exciting new film, television and theatre projects and remains committed to developing opportunities in all media.