LA calls local actress

Erin Pearson
SURF COAST actress Catherine Hancock will rub shoulders with Los Angeles’ acting elite next week after scoring an internationally acclaimed scholarship.
Ms Hancock, who grew up in Torquay and attended Bellbrae Primary School and Grovedale High School, said the scholarship would enable her to work with teachers who discovered celebrities such as Rose Byrne, Felicity Huffman, Jessica Alba and Matthew Fox.
“It’s quite daunting the calibre of teachers I will be working with David Mamet and William H. Macy run the Atlantic Acting School I’ll be attending,” she said.
Ms Hancock recently returned to Australia after a six-week intensive acting course in New York City for the Atlantic school’s prerequisite.
She was the only successful international candidate to receive the scholarship.
In her most recent taste of the Big Apple, the actress shot short feature films and signed up as the face of an international advertising campaign.
“When I was in New York I was doing one or two film and television auditions every day because the multitude of work is massive over there,” she said.
“Acting studios are really responsive to Australians which is great to see.”
Ms Hancock made her television debut when she was just a child with a lead role on the Channel 9 children’s program Pigs Breakfast.
Ms Hancock’s mother Linda said she always knew her daughter would make acting her career.
“Since she was very young she knew what her vocation was,” she said. “For her 11th birthday she asked for an agent.”
Ms Hancock’s latest feature film Trevail will be released in the US later this year.