Artist profile: Julia Vosnakis
Julia Vosnakis is feeling confident about her future in the local film industry following a trip to Los Angeles as the Helpmann Academy 2025 Neil Curnow Award recipient.
“The Americans were like ‘We’ve got to watch out for these Australians, man’. I got told that so many times,” Julia says. “I really was eager to take what I could get from the people who have done it before us in America and essentially bring it back here.”
The 28-year-old actor, writer and producer used the award – $10,000 for international study facilitated by the Helpmann Academy on behalf of the Independent Arts Foundation – to spend a month refining her screen skills in “the epicenter of the film industry”.
Flinders University Bachelor of Creative Arts (Drama) (Honours) graduate Julia trained at drama school Ivana Chubbuck Studio (ICS), which is connected with names like Halle Berry, Brad Pitt and Sylvester Stallone. She also studied improvisation and sketch comedy school The Groundlings, where many students end up on Saturday Night Live.
“Those two schools, although they are very different, fold in where I wanted my career to go,” Julia says.
Prior to heading to the US, she spent four weeks completing an online course with ICS to learn their technique before spending another four there in-person. Not only did she attend weekly classes and meet up with her scene partners regularly in between to rehearse, Julia also showed up to watch other classes and coaches to “learn from osmosis”.
Julia attended The Groundlings workshops twice a week and went to see their shows in the evenings. “They’re people who produce their own work because that’s what the school endorses – you can create your own characters and stories,” she says.
Finally, meeting with revered casting director Risa Bramon Garcia brought everything she had discovered together for Julia. “There were definitely moments of struggle trying to capture the technique … but when I went there it all clicked for me,” she says. “That was really freeing and I could connect to work in a new way.
“I also wanted to go (to the casting director) because, when Covid hit, the industry changed, with self-tapes being the main audition. Australia wasn’t as impacted by Covid as America, so they were whizzes at it and it’s just the new norm – it’s not a hassle and they can still find connection.”
Julia calls the whole experience a “creative awakening”.
“I had the most open mind I’ve ever had, just throwing myself fully into every experience and wanting to take every class as much as I could — and every opportunity that came up after I was like, ‘I’ll go to that, I’ll do that’,” she says.
“The last time I had the opportunity to purely focus on my craft was when I was in drama school, because even when I’m on set for a film or a play I’m juggling day jobs and normal life. It was good to immerse myself in this reinvigoration of my craft and invest this time into myself.”
The freedom to fully immerse herself back into her creative practice without working around a day job or other general life demands has made a huge impact on her professional development. “I really do think it has taken me to the next level as an actor and creator,” she says.
Since returning to Australia, Julia swiftly had the chance to implement her LA learnings by being cast in an upcoming feature film. Her focus now is where to take next the Greek romantic-comedy script she wrote with Helpmann Academy’s Elevate Mentorship in 2023.
The Disappointments was inspired by Julia’s experience of cultural expectations and contradictions as a “1.5 generation” Greek-Australian and “the comedy of it all”.
“Australia has so many stories to tell that we have not yet told,” she says. “And talent here, both actors and crew – people want to come and work in Australia. One of the things I did take away from LA is they are struggling. Their political climate in America is impacting the industry.
“It is our time for Australia to step up and create our own voice.”
The Neil Curnow Award supports emerging artists with further study or career development in acting, theatre performance or directing. Applications for the 2026 award close Sunday, November 2. Final-year students and graduates aged between 18 and 30 can apply at helpmannacademy.com.au/neil-curnow-award-2026/