Kiwi Actress Plays Princess In Aussie Series

Emily Robins was excited when invited to audition for the lead role in a new Australian children’s series in which she would both act and sing.

“I’d been singing all my life in musical theatre and competitions and stuff like that,” says the 19-year-old from New Zealand, who plays a 16-year-old who discovers she is a princess from an exotic, mystical kingdom, in The Elephant Princess.

“They basically said if you can’t do an Australian accent you can’t do the show,” says Robins, who spent a few hours a day for several weeks with a special coach who helped her learn Strine.

The Auckland-based performer, who has just voted for this first time (Labour) in her country’s elections, has acted in the popular New Zealand soap Shortland Street and was named New Zealand’s rising star in a contest hosted by a national TV guide.

She says she heard plenty of “good-hearted” jokes about sheep and encountered interest in hearing her pronounce the words “fish and chips”, but cast and crew were cautioned.

She says she has wanted to act since her first time onstage as an eight-year-old when she played a munchkin in a local theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz. She was in an Australian production of Fiddler on the Roof, and Auckland Theatre Company’s The Crucible.

Robins, who received operatic tuition while taking part in Les Miserables, sings in a neighbourhood rock band in the 26-episode, Jonathan M. Shiff (Thunderstone, Pirate Islands and Wicked Science) production, The Elephant Princess.