Samara Weaving: From Home & Away to Hollywood, we chart the actress' rise to fame

Getty / Netflix
Emma Clarke6 May 2020
The Weekender

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Samara Weaving has made the transition from small screen to – well, a slightly bigger small screen – as she carves a name for herself in Tinseltown in Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series, Hollywood.

While she has featured in massive blockbuster hits, such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, until now Weaving has mostly played smaller parts - aside from her turn in last year's horror Ready Or Not.

However, she has now landed a major role in what is set to be one of the biggest television events of the year.

As Hollywood arrives on the streaming platform, we take a closer look at her career.

Samara Weaving is starring in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series, Hollywood
Getty Images

Who is Samara Weaving?

The 28-year-old Australian actress and model was born in Adelaide in 1992, but grew up between Singapore, Fiji and Indonesia.

She got her first acting gig in the TV series Out of the Blue, but her first major role was in the daytime soap, Home & Away - which is massively popular in the UK, too.

Since March last year, Samara has been engaged to creative producer Jimmy Warden.

Home & Away (2009-2013)

Samara's first major role was in Home & Away, in which she played Indi Walker
Home and Away

Weaving played rebellious teen Indi Walker, who arrived in Summer Bay with her parents and little brother Dex.

The actress spent the majority of the time on Home & Away on the beach, as her character was a pro surfer.

Some of Weaving's biggest storylines in the soap centred around Indi's relationship with Romeo (Luke Mitchell), who also had a thing with Ruby (played by Rebecca Breeds, who, coincidentally, is his wife in real life).

Romeo then developed skin cancer and left Summer Bay without telling Indi, to spare her the pain. She later learned about his death, when she was in a new relationship - but the memory of Romeo made her feel so guilty she decided to leave town, too, to start a new life in Copenhagen, Denmark.

SMILF (2017-2019)

Weaving played Rose Nelson in the hit HBO series
HBO

SMILF marked Weaving's first role in an American production.

In the comedy series - which is about a young, bright single mother named Bridgett, who is trying to cope with her unconventional family - Samara played Nelson Rose.

However, in 2019 the series was cancelled after two seasons.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Although she only played a minor role, Weaving also featured in Three Billboards
Searchlight Pictures

Although a minor role, Weaving did feature in the Oscar-award-winning feature film starring Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson.

She played Penelope, the new girlfriend of Mildred's (McDormand) ex-husband.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)

Picnic at Hanging Rock: Irma Leopold (SAMARA WEAVING), Miranda Reid (LILY SULLIVAN), Marion Quade (MADELEINE MADDEN)
BBC/Fremantle Media/Sarah Enticknap

In the six-part Australian mystery drama, Weaving played Irma Leopold.

The show, which also starred Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer, saw a group of young girls go on a day trip to Hanging Rock, Victoria.

Things take a turn for the worse, however, when their teacher goes missing.

Ready Or Not (2019)

Eric Zachanowich

Weaving made waves in Hollywood in 2019 with a lead performance that allowed her to exercise her extraordinary range as an actress: horror movie Ready or Not.

Hollywood (2020)

Samara plays Claire Wood in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood
Netflix

Ryan Murphy's new star-studded Netflix series could be Weaving's big break.

In the show, Weaving stars as Claire Wood, who is the (rather spoilt) daughter of the owners of Ace movie studios.

She's also an aspiring actress, who goes up against Camille (Laura Harrier) in auditions for the role of Peg.

Hollywood is available to stream on Netflix now

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