Rhys Wakefield was born on the 20th of November 1988 in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, but grew up in Sydney. Already from a very early age, he took an interest in acting and theatre. It all started with his childhood dream of becoming a superhero, and as he grew older, the dream developed into his passion for acting.

He started attending acting classes in fourth grade when he first attended McDonalds Performing Arts College in Sydney. His first acting job was as a part of the chorous in an opera with Opera Australia. The school had it’s own theatre, which Rhys became very passionate about. The theatre is still close to his heart, maybe we´ll see him on Broadway one day?

In 2002, he scored his very first TV role. He had a guest appearance in a episode of the children show Don’t Blame Me. This opened a door into a new world for Rhys. Still attending the McDonalds College, he was offered an audition for a role in the popular drama series Home and Away in 2005. After waiting for a response for a long time, he finally got the part of Lucas Holden, the new hot guy in town.

On the set, Rhys and co-star Indiana Evans soon became very close, and the rumours started buzzing about them being a couple, just like their on-screen alter egos. They finally annonced their relationship for the public in may 2006, after a few months of dating. But teen love is tough, and the couple split after being together for about 11 months.

Things got pretty intense when Rhys had to juggle between acting and his HSC exams, but the Home and Away producers where understanding and gave him time off to complete his schooling. Whilst still on the show, Rhys did an audition for the australian movie The Black Balloon. He scored the lead role as Tommy Mollison, the younger brother of highly autistic Charlie.

Filming started in early 2007, famous actor Toni Collette and supermodel Gemma Ward was flughn in from the states to star in Elissa Downs debute feature. The Black Balloon was released to australian theatres 6th March 2008, after it had it’s world premiere at Berlin film festival february the same year. The movie was very succesfull and were screened all over the world.

In september 2007, media reported that Rhys was soon to be leaving Home and Away. He recorded his last episodes as Lucas Holden in October the same year. His exit-scene was of the more silent part, with Lucas going to the city to attend the university there. This episode aired in Australia on 14th February 2008.

After finishing up on Home and Away, Rhys didn’t waste much time. He wanted to move on to bigger and better things in his career. After a bit of auditioning, he got a small part in the movie Broken Hill, produced by the team behind the successfull Hollywood movie Napoleon Dynamite. The film was filmed in the outback of Southern Australia over a period of about two months. Also in 2008, Rhys featured in the short films Clearing the Air and Scent, aswell as  doing a fair bit of travelling.

In October 2009 came the amazing news of Rhys being cast in James Camerons (Titantic, Avatar) new project, Sanctum, a 3D underwater drama. Filming was done in the period December 2009 to March 2010 At the same time as Rhys’ casting in Sanctum was made official, his talent agent Darren Statt moved from United Talent Agency (UTA) to Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and all his clients followed. Both companies are in the top of the best talent agencies.

After wrapping up Sanctum, returned to LA to do a lot of audition. In late january 2011 an extensive promotional campaign for Sanctum started to create a buzz around the movie. Would it be as good and sucessful as Avatar? But even with James Camerons name on the cover, it was not a big box office hit when it was released in the US on February 4th. It also met a lot of criticism from the press. But atleast now Rhys´name is more out there, and he will probably get more noticed! Rhys has been living in LA full time, since the Sanctum premiere there.

Many fans of The Hunger Games triology were rooting for Rhys as Peeta Melleark in the much anticipated film adaption of the popular books. But he lost the part to Josh Hutcherson. However, in May it was annouced that Rhys would take part in the american indie film Nobody Walks about a young artist. Filming started in the end of may, and commenced in the beginning of June. Also in May came the news of Rhys being cast in The Philosophers, a psychological thriller starring the likes of Bonnie Wright (Harry Potter). The movie centers around a international school in Jakarta, Indonesia. Filming started in late june and will continue until september.