# Thomas Weatherall

Thomas Weatherall (born 22 August 2000) is an Australian actor and playwright. He is known for his performances in the television series RFDS (2019–2021) and Heartbreak High (2022), and for writing the play Blue, first performed in 2019.

## Early life and education

Thomas Weatherall was born on August 22, 2000 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He is a Kamilaroi man.
Weatherall grew up on the Gold Coast and attended Marymount College, where he was an active member of the cultural team, including cultural and mob captain in his final year in 2017. At Marymount, Weatherall played the role of Lonny Barnett / Record executive in the college's 2017 production of Rock of Ages.
As a child, he wanted to be a dancer when he grew up, and trained hard for this goal. However, he heard about ABC Television auditioning for roles in Deadlock (2018) during his last year of high school, and decided to give it a try. After landing the role, he found that he loved acting, and went on to study drama at Queensland University of Technology. As his screen career took off, he dropped out.

## Career
### Beginnings (2018–2021)

Weatherall's first acting role was in the award-winning ABC miniseries Deadlock. He was in drama school and working in a shoe shop when he won the role for Seven Network's RFDS, which he went for mainly for the chance to play Rob Collins' son in the medical drama. On 18 August 2024, it was announced that a third season of the series with production moving from Broken Hill to South Australia due to upgrades at the real Broken Hill base. Weatherall would be returning for the series third season.

### Breakthrough (2022–present)

He came to international prominence in the 2022 Netflix series Heartbreak High. The series became one of the streaming service's most-watched English-spoken series, making the Top 10 in Australia as well as 45 other countries in September 2022.
He also had roles in the ABC series All My Friends Are Racist and Troppo.
Weatherall's playwriting debut came with the play Blue, which he started writing in 2019 based on old high school diary entries, as "self-prescribed therapy". After winning a Balnaves Fellowship to complete the play, he fictionalised it further, and performed in the Belvoir Theatre production of it in Sydney in 2023. The play, which is in the form of a dramatic monologue, had a successful season at the Belvoir. In March 2024 a Belvoir production was presented by State Theatre Company South Australia at the Adelaide Festival in Adelaide, South Australia, with Callan Purcell in the starring role. In May 2024 Weatherall once again starred in a production of Blue at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre.
Weatherall is set to star opposite Jacob Elordi in the upcoming adaptation of Richard Flanagan's novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North as a TV series for Prime Video. Weatherall was later announced as part of the cast for Disney+ series Last Days of the Space Age.

## Recognition and awards

* 2021: Balnaves Fellowship, awarded by the Belvoir theatre company to an emerging Indigenous playwright
* 2022: AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama, for his performance in Heartbreak High
* 2023: Logie Award for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor

## Filmography

Television :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2018 | Deadlock | Aero | 5 episodes |
| 2021 | All My Friends Are Racist | Luke | 2 episodes |
| 2021–present | RFDS | Darren Yates | 12 episodes |
| 2022 | Troppo | Charlie | 6 episodes |
| 2022–Present | Heartbreak High | Malakai Mitchell | Main role, 16 episodes |
| 2024 | Exposure | Angus | Main role; 6 episodes |
| 2024 | Last Days of the Space Age | Bilya | 8 episodes |
| 2025 | The Narrow Road to the Deep North † | Frank Gardiner | Post-Production |