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Sam Atwell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sam Atwell
Born
Samuel Atwell

(1979-04-06) 6 April 1979 (age 45)
Occupations
  • Actor
  • producer
  • writer
  • director
Spouses
  • Alison McGirr (divorced)
  • Kitty Maguire [1]

Samuel Atwell (born 6 April 1979) is an Australian actor, producer, writer and director.[2] He is best known for his role as Kane Phillips in Home and Away, and is also known for roles in headLand, as Craig Palmer, and Secret Life of Boys, as David Boxwell. He has worked extensively as a crew member on Home and Away, and Irish soap opera Fair City.

Early life

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Atwell was born in Nambour, Queensland. He and his family lived in Indonesia for 6 years before returning to Queensland where he grew up in Brisbane, attending St Peter's Lutheran College.[2] He always had a passion for acting, pursuing speech and drama courses throughout school, and was credited as being the first drama captain in his school's history.[2]

After high school, he attended Queensland University of Technology where he completed a B.A. in acting and then moved to Sydney after finishing at the age of 20.[citation needed]

Career

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Atwell did some work with Channel 7 at the end of primary school and Children's TV for UNICEF, and also completed a short film made for television. In year 11, with the help of teachers and other students, he formed a school-sponsored theatre company that produced plays such as Property of the Clan, All Stops Out and Dags.[citation needed]

He completed a film called Acting Out alongside Lara Cox, before taking up his most notable role of Kane Phillips in the soap opera Home and Away. Before securing the role of Kane, he auditioned unsuccessfully for the roles of Tom Nash and Noah Lawson.[3] He later learned that he had made it into the top 2 for the role of Noah, losing out to Beau Brady.

Atwell played the role of Craig Palmer in short-lived Aussie TV soap, headLand,[4] and starred in a TV pilot entitled Call Back[5] by Australian Writer Kate Toon.[6] Other credits include City Loop, an independent film completed while he was at the university, The Wayne Manifesto, All Saints, and the Hal McElroy film Mr. Reliable.

While acting on Home and Away Atwell also made a foray into writing and directing. In 2002, alongside his girlfriend at the time, Leah Pappin, he started his own theatre company, ‘ActorCorp’.[7] Atwell co-produced the play Savage/Love which he also starred in alongside former Home and Away co-stars Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen and Leah Pappin.[2] He also directed 72 episodes of Home and Away (2007-2009) and wrote several episodes.[8]

After leaving Home and Away Atwell travelled to Dublin in 2013, where he was introduced to the producer of the Irish soap Fair City. Moving there in 2014, he joined the production team of the soap, as a writer, script consultant and producer.

He continues to work predominantly as a producer of TV shows in Ireland. He currently works in Drama Development for RTE, having worked on Kin, Hidden Assets and Smother.

Atwell still acts intermittently, and had a recurring role in the BBC/ABC children's TV series Secret Life of Boys.[9][10]

Personal life

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Atwell became an Irish citizen in 2022, and resides in Dublin with his wife Kitty Maguire.

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Type
1996 Mr. Reliable (aka My Entire Life) Samuel Jakovitch Feature film
1999 Fusion Short film
2000 City Loop (aka Bored Olives) Security Guard Independent feature film
2002 Seconds to Spare Waiter TV movie
2002 The Visitor Nathan Short film
2007 Acting Out Danny Film
2009 Peanut Butter Dad Short film
2013 Mercy Campaign for the Bali Nine Self Short film
2017 Secret Life of Boys: Farther Christmas David Boxwell TV movie

Television

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Year Title Role Type
1997 The Wayne Manifesto Vernon TV series, episode 16: "Wheels Within Wheels"
2000–2006 All Saints Douglas Macreadie / Alan Phillips TV series, 6 episodes
2001–2009 Home and Away Kane Phillips TV series, 302 episodes
2005–2006 headLand Craig Palmer TV series, 58 episodes
2011 Call Back TV pilot
2013 Wonderland Matt TV series, season 1, episode 7: "Hooking Up"
2015–2019 Secret Life of Boys David Boxwell TV series, seasons 1–4, 9 episodes
2021 Fair City Barbie Man TV series, episode: "Holiday Special"

As crew

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Year Title Role Type
2007–2009 Home and Away Director TV series
2011–2014 Writer
2013–2014 Sctipt editor
2013 Mercy Campaign for the Bali Nine Co-director Short film
2014–2022 Fair City Studio director / location director TV series
2020 Script editor
Kin TV series
2021 Hidden Assets Development executive TV series, 6 episodes
2022 Smother Development executive TV series, 6 episodes
2022 North Sea Connection Development executive TV series, 6 episodes

Stage

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As actor

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Year Title Role Type
2002 The Glory of Living PACT Theatre
2002 Savage/Love Bondi Pavilion
2006 We'll Always Have Wagga Newtown Theatre
2007 Sexual Perversity in Prague Newtown Theatre
2013-14 The Removalists The Removalist Bondi Pavilion & Brisbane Powerhouse

As crew

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Year Title Role Type
2002 Savage/Love Co-producer Bondi Pavilion
2005 Bill Director / wrirer Seymour Centre for Short and Sweet (festival)
2007 The Journey into Sin Director Newtown Theatre
2008-09 Bondi Dreaming Director / writer Newtown Theatre, Bondi Pavilion & Seymour Centre for Tamarama Rock Surfers

[11]

References

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  1. ^ "Home and Away's Sam Atwell moved to Dublin & works on Fair City after soap exit". 25 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "Home And Away star Australia Day guest". The Armidale Express. 11 January 2008. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Tis Your Man from Home and Away- Sam Atwell!!!".
  4. ^ AAP (16 November 2005). "headLand debuts". The Age.
  5. ^ "New pilot "Call back" makes optus 180 finals - Blog - Indianic Pictures, Sydney, Australia". Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  6. ^ "Home". katetoon.com.
  7. ^ "Home and Away star Australia Day guest - Local News - News - General - Armidale Express". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
  8. ^ "Sam Atwell". Linkedin.
  9. ^ "Tubridy Tuesday 16 September 2014 - Tubridy - RTÉ 2fm". RTÉ.ie. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  10. ^ "Home and Away's 'bad boy' Sam Atwell is unrecognisable now". au.lifestyle.yahoo.com. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  11. ^ "AusStage".
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