Tara Rushton

Age

**Tara Rushton** is the actress who played Charlie in the webseries KateModern. The role has earned her a 2009 Steamy nomination for best actress in a web drama. Born in Perth, Western Australia, Tara grew up on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria before her family moved to Sydney, where she went to high school, College, and University.

Tara began her modeling career at age 15, when she went to a Cleo exhibition where a modeling competition was held; her mother decided to enter her into the model search and she was signed by Vivien's Model Management. Still in high school, and then in College and University, Tara squeezed in modeling when she had time off throughout the school term and on her holiday breaks, when she often traveled to South East Asia to shoot campaigns for Ponds, Sunsilk, Toyota and Oral B. She was also named Miss Photogenic in the Miss World Australia competition in 2003.

Tara finished her University degree at the end of 2005, graduating in 2006 with a diploma in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications to her name. Just after Christmas 2005, she left Sydney and moved to New York where she continued to model. Throughout the next fifteen months, she moved to Germany, back to Sydney, and then to Hong Kong and Singapore, advancing her modeling career as she went. In March 2007, Tara was chosen as a finalist in the Guess Faces to Watch Model Search and went to Basel, Switzerland to compete for the title in April 2007. She and her family then went on a vacation, during which they traveled throughout Europe.

At this time, Tara moved to London, hoping to move away from modeling to pursue a career in either writing or some form of television reporting or presenting. She got called for an audition by KateModern, her only prior acting experience being drama courses at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and a Television Presenting Course at TV PRO Global. A mere five weeks after moving to London, Tara was cast for the role of Charlie. Since that time, she has completed courses at the Poor School London, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Temple London and Vocaltech in London where she is studying foundation in singing. Tara was particularly excited about the role of Charlie, though, for she had heard of LG15 prior to auditioning and was very excited to be able to work with the KateModern team.

She has said in the past that Tara and Charlie are very similar to each other, and that The Creators are incorporating many of her likes and dislikes in Charlie, making the character more realistic and easier to play. An example of this is the choice of music Charlie listens to: *"The writers did ask me as a person what music I liked, so Charlie likes INXS, Eskimo Joe, Something For Kate, things like that."*

Tara likes the direct connection to the viewers in KateModern, but she's not always sure if people talk to Tara, the actress, or Charlie, the character. She also finds the concept of fan fiction, especially fanvids, "really interesting".

She recently finished filming an Australian comedy/drama called "Forget the Rules", in which she played Merline, a Facebook stalker.

Tara finds inspiration from creative and ambitious people, art, music, meeting new people, and exploring foreign countries. If she weren't acting or modeling, Tara would like to be a writer or designer. She would also love to write a film or a book in the future, and enjoys traveling the world and seeing her family as often as possible.

## External Links

* Tara as a finalist for Guess
* Article about Tara's "double life" in the Herald Sun
* Tara's comments at 'The Kate Modern Portal'