In an interesting twist of fate, two East Gippsland actors, Lara Deam and Jarid Kennedy, have been cast in two films together.
Lara grew up in Bairnsdale, attending St Mary’s Primary School and Nagle College until the year 2000.
Ironically, her year 10 work experience was at the Bairnsdale Advertiser.
“I loved my week working in the (Bairnsdale Advertiser) office and still remember writing an article on home security,” Lara said.
Since then, Lara has been acting in both Australia and Canada for the past 15 years.
Jarid, a Bruthen resident who also grew up in Bairnsdale, attended Bairnsdale West Primary School and Bairnsdale Secondary College, finishing in 1997.Coincidentally he had an after school job and did work experience at the Bairnsdale Advertiser too.
Jarid fell in love with acting at a young age, especially performing in front of his family, and was encouraged by his mum to take up acting in his teenage years, but instead he joined the Navy in 1998 and lived in Perth for 15 years.
It wasn’t until returning to Bairnsdale in 2013 that he developed a renewed interest in acting thanks to the influence of his brother Mitch and his passion for independent filmmaking.
As for Lara, she discovered her passion for acting thanks to her teacher at Nagle, Juliette Aukema. Initially, Lara moved to Melbourne to study ballet full-time, but after an injury forced her to change direction, she found her way back to acting and story telling – something she’s very grateful for.
A few days ago Lara also received a Honourable Mention at the RED Movie Awards in Reim, France for her directorial debut short film, Ensconced, produced by Spyridon Pictures.
When Lara was cast in feature film Sunny’s Mansion in 2023, her best friend, Lisa Whelan (a Bairnsdale resident), pointed out that a friend of hers, Jarid had also been cast.
Jarid and Lara couldn’t believe their paths had crossed in such an unexpected way.
In Sunny’s Mansion, which is coming out later this year, Lara plays the protagonist Lucky and Jarid is a main character called Brad.
Sunny’s Mansion is a story that has never been addressed before in a horror genre film.
Director and writer Herman Perera hired a top actor from Sri Lanka to play the villain because the story revolves around ‘mantra’, a power practiced/believed in Asian countries, mainly in Sri Lanka and in India.
To make things even more interesting, Jarid and Lara were once again cast together – this time in an upcoming comedy short film, Trouble at the Local, written and directed by Joel Quick and filming in Drouin this May.
“It’s amazing how our careers keep overlapping, and I’m thrilled to work with Jarid again,” Lara said.
