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Heartbreak High star unrecognisable after leaving acting behind

TV series Heartbreak High epitomised life for Aussie teens in the '90s and as each season came and went, new characters also came and went from the fictional Hartley High school.

One of those characters was Charlie Byrd, a nerdy computer geek played by a young Sebastian Goldspink in his first role after graduating from acting school.

 'Heartbreak High' actor Sebastian Goldspink in the show in 1996 and in 2021
Sebastian Goldspink as Charlie in Heartbreak High (left) and (right) what he looks like now. Photo: Facebook/heartbreakhigh & Instagram/@sebastiangoldspink

Sebastian admitted that he was 'nervous' to join the cast as bespectacled Charlie, who transferred to Hartley after meeting Katerina, played by Home & Away's Ada Nicodemou, in an online computer class.

“I was nervous as I came straight from acting school where I’d spent three years doing plays,” Sebastian revealed to News.com.au. “I had virtually no on-camera experience.”

But he enjoyed the whole experience and being part of an ensemble of up-and-coming Aussie stars. “We all got along great”, Sebastian went on to say.

“Some of the actors were romantically linked and sometimes this even paralleled their characters’ relationships. The male actors all shared a change room: we had music and couches and would hang out and watch movies.”

After two years at the school, Charlie moved to Perth (where all soap characters seem to go when writers can't explain why they will never come back!) but what happened to Sebastian's acting career?

Heartbreak High actor Sebastian Goldspink, actress Alexandra Davies and makeup artist Nikky Reik attend the post-screening cocktail party for
Sebastian with his Heartbreak High co-star, Alexandra Davies, and makeup artist Nikky Reik at an event in 2004. Photo: Getty Images.

After Heartbreak

Sebastian went on to act in many well-known Australian dramas including Wildside, Dog's Head Bay and All Saints before quietly disappearing from our TV screens in 2004.

But with a new revival of Heartbreak High set to launch on Netflix this year, there has been renewed interest in the actors from the show, especially those who are not in the public eye in front of the camera any longer.

While Sebastian may have left acting behind, he certainly didn't disappear from the creative arts.

A proud descendant of the Burramattagal people of Western Sydney, he followed his love of art and created non-profit artist space ALASKA Projects in Kings Cross, Sydney in 2011 – named after a Velvet Underground lyric, a favourite band of his.

“It was a choice [I made] about ten years ago,” he revealed in 2016. “I don’t miss the rigours of the acting world. But I do miss the friends and colleagues and the intensity of working on a show like Heartbreak High," he added.

And he seems to have relished the challenge of curating art that has a story and meaning.

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Actors Sebastian Goldspink and Rel Hunt in the 90s playing Charlie and Ryan in 'Heartbreak High' and in December 2021 in front of a fountain. Photo: Facebook/heartbreakhigh & Instagram/@sebastiangoldspink
Sebastian Goldspink and Rel Hunt as Charlie and Ryan in Heartbreak High (top) and the former co-stars in December 2021. Photo: Facebook/heartbreakhigh & Instagram/@sebastiangoldspink

"For me the process of creating a show is an act of problem solving and that struggle reflects in some ways the process that artists go through to make work," he told COMA in an interview. "Having the proximity that I have to artists gives me an insight into these processes and struggles and I am always left fascinated by this glimpse into these worlds."

In August last year, he was named as the curator of the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. "I’m beyond humbled to have been named as the curator," Sebastian wrote in an Instagram post. "I’m so excited to engage with artists and to contribute to a national dialogue about the now. These are strange and interesting times. Game on."

However, even though he's given up acting he hasn't turned his back on the friendships he made at the time. He is still in touch with actor Rel Hunt who played Ryan in Heartbreak High.

"Always great to run into old mate [Rel] a passionate energetic force of nature and a loyal friend," he said on a post of the two of them on his Instagram account just before Christmas last year.

"Hartley heartbreakers," one follower wrote on the post and indeed they still are!

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