New York Film Academy Australia Gold Coast alumnus Makwaya Masudi will make his television debut on ABC TV’s latest legal drama “Newton’s Law.”
The Australian television series follows a suburban solicitor’s journey as she resumes her career at the bar.
Masudi acts alongside a star-studded Australian cast, including Claudia Karvan, Toby Schmitz, Georgina Naidu and Miranda Tapsell. His character, Zareb Mulumba, is a young refugee who settles in Melbourne to work as at a law firm. Masudi was able to draw from his own life, as the NYFA Australia alumnus grew up in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
“My life experience provides me with more than just an emotional element to my craft, it also shows me what I don’t want to ever go through again,” says Masudi. “And that’s my reason to strive forward in my career.”
Masudi impressed the casting panel from the very beginning, and he was immediately asked back for a second audition, leading to a meeting with director Jennifer Leacey.
Masudi says the greatest challenge for him was to portray the myriad of emotions that his character goes through in the story in such a short amount of time. It was especially difficult due to the fact that the series was shot out of sequence.
“NYFA Australia taught me how to break down a script so that I could find the hidden clues that help me understand the story and character better,” said Masudi. “To be honest, if I didn’t know how to break down a script like I learned at NYFA, I would have never made it to the call back. So thank you NYFAA GC.”
Masudi says he is now working on another project that he is not allowed to disclose just yet, and is also training his London, Brooklyn, New York and South African accent.
Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.