By Luke Voogt
Hamlyn Heights actress Tara Vagg is earning worldwide exposure thanks to her latest role in Geelong-based comedy Rostered On.
The 25-year-old plays Tess, an employee whose workplace “romances” find her deep water.
“A lot of (her storyline) is how she deals with the consequences of that,” Tara says.
The web series, filmed at Waurn Ponds, explores the lighter side of retail. The show’s now had more than 170,000 views.
Unlike independent films and plays, says Tara, web series can reach well beyond their initial audience.
“Social media is an amazing tool for promotion and it’s done wonders for the series.”
Tara’s also thrilled to work with writer-director Ryan Chamley in her hometown.
“It’s so much fun – the writing is so funny that everybody is bursting into laughter every few minutes,” she says.
“A lot of the time these creative opportunities only happen in Melbourne.”
The Sound of Music introduced Tara to the acting world at 17.
She played Liesl in a Queenscliff Lighthouse Theatre Group production of the timeless classic.
“I love being other characters – you have to create this imaginary world where it’s just you and the other person,” Tara explains.
Tara will star at local film festivals for recent roles in independent movies.
In Fire and Ice she portrays a young woman in a downward spiral into methamphetamine addiction.
Her research included documentaries and YouTube interviews of drug users.
“That was intense – a lot of them wish they never started it but are stuck in that cycle,” she says.
“You don’t judge them. You have to just understand why they do it.”
After studying acting at Federation University in Ballarat, Tara returned to Geelong to teach singing and acting at Moore-Grace acting studio.
But she’s still chasing the dream of making it big in the film industry.
“Since then I’ve been auditioning for as many things as I can,” she says.
Tara’s other loves are music and wildlife.
She sang in Italy and Switzerland for Matthew Flinders Secondary College’s band, Sweethearts, and volunteered with elephants in northern Thailand and orangutans in Borneo.
