Today is Australia Day, and Aussies all around the world are celebrating the finest of Down Under, from beautiful beaches to Vegemite.
The country has also produced a number of well-known figures, all of whom began their careers in the same place: Home and Away.
Summer Bay has seen a lot of people come and go over the years, but these are the ones who made it to Hollywood.
Chris Hemsworth
Hemsworth is best recognised for his role as the hammer-wielding superhero Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the Melbourne native began his career in Summer Bay.
From 2004 until 2007, he played student Kim Hyde on Home and Away, winning the hearts of soap fans everywhere when he was mistakenly identified as the father of his ex-girlfriend Brooke McPherson’s child.
Kim later married doctor Rachel Armstrong, but after she became pregnant with his child, he left his wife and Summer Bay for good to be with another woman, Kit Hunter.
Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts played Julie Gibson on Home and Away a decade before winning her breakout role as Betty Elms in Mulholland Drive.
Julie, who featured in a few episodes between April and May 1991, needed a wheelchair after surviving a vehicle accident in which her mother died.
Watts has subsequently gone on to garner two Oscar nominations and earned a Screen Actors Guild award for appearing in Birdman.
Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger had a time on Home and Away as Scott Irwin before becoming a household figure for his Oscar-winning role as the Joker in The Dark Knight and appearances in films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Brokeback Mountain.
Despite only appearing in a few episodes, the actor is well-known for his portrayal of the local bad kid who was dismissed from school after sneaking into the principal’s office and stealing exam papers.
On January 22nd, 2008, Ledger died after inadvertently overdosing on a cocktail of narcotics.
Isla Fisher
Isla Fisher, who starred in Arrested Development, joined the cast of Home and Away in 1994 when she was just 19 years old.
Over the course of three years, the 45-year-old played Shannon Reed in around 400 episodes.
Her character came at the Bay with her brother Curtis, causing a ruckus when it was revealed that they were dating rather than adoptive brothers.
Fisher left the show in 1997 to attend a theatre and arts training school in Paris, and she has since appeared in films like The Great Gatsby, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Now You See Me.
Samara Weaving
Samara played gym owner Indi Walker on Home and Away from 2009 to 2013, however she left the show immediately after learning that her husband Romeo had died of cancer.
Since then, the 29-year-old has been extremely busy, gaining partnerships with Netflix and Amazon Prime to further her career.
Bee in Netflix’s The Babysitter film series, Claire Wood in the miniseries Hollywood, and Jessica Chandler in Nine Perfect Strangers are just a few of her recent performances.
