Heartbreaking Update! Star Kyle Shilling shocks fans with devastating news!……..see more in the comments 👇👇

Kyle Shilling fondly remembers the dinners at his nan and pop’s house when he was 11 years old.

In front of the TV, dinner at the ready, they’d be sat in the lounge room waiting for 7pm to roll around. Because this was Home & Away time.

Sat in front of his nan while she ran her fingers through his hair, they waited somewhat patiently for the start of one of their favourite shows.

“She was always fidgety, so she always used to either scratch my head or comb my hair,” he said.

“And I used to really enjoy that so I’d kind of sit there, relaxing, and kind of just dive into this world watching with my nan and pop. And it was always Home & Away.”

Now, the Widjabul man of the Bundjalung nation is playing the show’s first ever Indigenous main character.

Shilling has been on our screens since January as suave surfer Mali Hudson, but the young actor has been in the industry for a while now.

“As a kid I always had that love of performing,” he said.

“Me and my brothers we would always film videos of us lip-syncing songs so we’d always get ourselves dressed up.

“And so, I think it was always there but I never thought it could be a career.”

If Shilling’s face and name sound familiar to you, you’d be right.

His roots in performing arts go back to his time in dance college. He then went on to dance with Bangarra Theatre for a year before an old footy injury reared its ugly head and his dance career came to an end.

Eventually, Shilling found his passion in acting and reignited his interests in the arts.

Auditioning for Home & Away, Shilling vied for a few roles before he was named Summer Bay’s Mali.

“I originally auditioned as a new lead nurse role and then I was at the auditions for a completely different role,” he said.

“I was just being myself, I was cheeky, I was having a bit of fun with all the other guys that I just met.

“Halfway through waiting to hear if I’d got the role, my agent contacted me and said ‘you know they really liked you as a nurse but it just doesn’t suit you and who you are as a person’.”

 

 

 

 

Shilling’s fun-loving personality shone through enough in the audition and the role of Mali was created just for him.

“They created this role of Mali and they really just want to me on screen as Mali.

“Mali himself, the character is really drawn from me as a person. Family-oriented, loving, caring, cheeky, culturally driven.”

And Shilling’s had quite the start on the TV show, his character Mali has been shown enjoying getting romantically involved with police officer Rose Delaney.

However, their relationship faced a spanner in the works when Shilling’s on-screen sister Elandra turned up in the bay for an unannounced visit.

Played by Yolgnu actress Rarriwuy Hick, from Wentworth and True Colours, Elandra turns up in Summer Bay to bring her brother home.

Seeing this representation on screen and getting to work with other First Nations actors has been important for Shilling.

As the show’s first Indigenous main character, Shilling said he wants the impact of that to resonate with First Nations young people.

“I feel like a lot of our young Indigenous people are too shame or because they are stereotyped as this they’re not going to be able to succeed in other things,” he said.

“What I hold close to me is, I am living proof that no matter what you’ve gone through you can do these things.

“You’ve just got to stay consistent, you’ve just got to keep kicking your goals otherwise at the end of the day the only person that’s going to stop you is yourself.”

 

 

 

 

This is definitely not the end for Shilling either.

While he’s the first Indigenous main character on Home & Away, he’s not done being ‘the first’.

“I was the first Indigenous main character in this show, my next aim would be to be the first Indigenous superhero in Marvel or DC,” Shilling said.

“And I’m really stoked to have started this wave of events because I’m not just an Indigenous actor performing in an Indigenous show.

“I’m an Indigenous actor performing in an Australian show that is representing different kinds of people.”

As for what viewers can expect from cheeky chap Mali, Shilling let out a chuckle and said we’ve got a lot to expect.

“There’s a lot you are going to see from him throughout the next year,” he said.

“Without saying too much it gets really exciting. And it takes a turn that no one would have ever thought would happen. So keep your eyes open!”

Home & Away airs on the Seven Network at 7pm from Monday to Thursday.