Class Teacher (Senior Acting Extension)

James Millar is a multi-award winning Australian actor and writer. He is the author of the musical drama ‘The Hatpin’, the song cycle ‘LOVEBiTES’ and multi-award winning semi-autobiographical ‘A Little Touch of Chaos’ as well as the stage adaptions ‘The Dressmaker’ and ‘Lil’ Elvis and the Truckstoppers’. He graduated from the University of Technology Sydney as a Writing and Contemporary Culture graduate. James is also a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

He is the recipient of five green room awards, two Sydney Critics Awards and The Helpmann Award for best actor in a musical. 

He has appeared in ‘Oklahoma!’ for The Production Company, ‘The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’ for Company Belvoir, played the role of Peter in Sondheim's ‘Company’ at Sydney's Theatre Royal, as Chucky in ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ at the Sydney Opera House, and for Ensemble Theatre, played the lead role of Mitchell Green in the Australian premiere of ‘The Little Dog Laughed’, appeared in the Australian Premiere of ‘Grey Gardens’ for The Production Company, ‘The Ring Cycle’ at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and toured the UK in ‘Chess’ as Molokov.

For television, James has performed in ‘A Country Practice’, ‘Water Rats’, ‘Police Rescue’, ‘The Leaving of Liverpool’, ‘Home and Away’ and the award winning film ‘The Eternity Man’.

In April 2015, it was announced that James would play Miss Trunchbull in the Australian premiere season of Matilda the Musical for which he won the Helpmann Award for best actor. He followed this successful run with a star turn as Alan Bennett opposite Miriam Margolyes in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s The Lady in the Van. And most recently played The Baker in “Into the Woods” for Watch This in Melbourne, and the Northern Irish Opera Company with WAO in Perth.

As a director, James has worked for every major drama school in Australia and most recently directed ‘Sweeney Todd’ at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. He also recently toured as host and interlocutor for Miriam Gargoyle’s national tour ‘Oh, Miriam’.

Class Teacher (Junior Musical Theatre, Intermediate & Senior Musical Theatre)

Francine Cain is a Green room award winner and Helpmann Award-nominated musical theatre star. She landed not only her first professional Musical Theatre show soon after graduating from WAAPA, but also won the 2010 Rob Guest Endowment Scholarship, which took her to New York, working with some of Broadway's greatest performing arts tutors. Francine's credits include 'Regina' in the Tony Award Winner Rock of Ages (Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations), understudying 'Truly Scrumptious' in the Australian tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and an 18-month national tour playing 'Frenchy' in Grease the Musical for GFO. An excellent character actress, Francine played the legendary

Lucille Ball in Everybody Loves Lucy, and to critical acclaim, the role of 'Calliope' in Xanadu The Musical. Francine toured Australia with the hit show The Play That Goes Wrong covering and playing the role of

Sandra before taking over the role in the recent NZ/Australian tour of Peter Pan Goes Wrong. She was most recently Cecil Caldwell in ‘Cruel Intentions’ winning her best supporting Actress. 

Francine is an established acting coach, and holds a CDPA from AMEB in speech and drama with over 20 years of experience teaching and directing in primary schools and performing arts schools all over the country. She is also the Director of Australia’s newest cruise line entertainment company, Eleonore Entertainment. 

Class Teacher (Intermediate Acting Extension, Mini Musical Theatre, Mini Acting)

Email: Ilsa@little-seed.com.au

Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher is a highly awarded artist, director and educator. Ilsa began her career in studying Fine Arts (acting) and later studying Education (University of Southern Queensland and Queensland University of Technology). After graduating acting school in 2006, Ilsa worked and toured various productions and artistic projects with Queensland Arts Council, La Boite Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, Metro Arts, Brisbane Festival, and various independent stage and film works. After developing her career in performance, Ilsa made natural next steps into education, and direction in both theatre and film. Working globally as a commercial and artistic film director, producer and fine art photographer for the last eight years, she has built a reputation, portfolio and skill-set of building narrative-rich immersive creative projects. She recently exhibited her artwork at the prestigious V&A Museum in London and was catalogued in London's National Art Library. Ilsa’s stage production ‘We Are The Sea’ with Little Seed won Best Play 2024 at the Sunshine Coast Theatre Festival, and most recently co-directed Little Seed's 'Our Town'. She is thrilled to have returned from Melbourne and become a part of the Little Seed family and community once more, assisting the growth and success of their ambitious students across theatre, film, and all storytelling. 

Holiday Program Leader | Class Teacher (Junior & Intermediate Acting Extension)

Email: Tania@little-seed.com.au

Multi award winning playwright, director and actor, Tania Nash, has created two sell out and award winning seasons of her plays The Rogue Toad and Pooch Park. Tania's directorial credits include Laura Wade’s Home Im Darling Nick Enright's Daylight Savings, Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw and a number of award winning One Act plays for the National One Act Playwriting Competition As an actress her performances include Williamson's Up for Grabs, Minefields and Miniskirts, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, plenty of pantomimes and several One Act Plays for Noosa Arts Theatre and Coolum Theatre Players. Tania teaches drama for Little Seed Theatre Company and in schools.

Class Teacher (Junior Acting, Junior Acting Studio 3, Mini Musical Theatre, Intermediate & Senior Acting for Film)

Email: Sally@little-seed.com.au

Sally started as a Musical Theatre Little Seed student in May of 2022 where she performed as Ms Myers in the Senior Musical, Fame! She quickly volunteered to help out with our Junior Acting Extension where she sparked her love for working with our younger students. Sally went on to perform in our productions of The Crucible, Radium Girls, and Spamalot in 2023. Her passion for the arts sparked at a young age starting with the role of Molly in Annie as a Year 4 student, performing as the Baroness in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Pilar in Legally Blonde, and Shrek in Shrek the Musical, throughout the years at St Andrews Anglican College. Her love for running an Acting Academy as a Drama Leader during her final year in school brought her to teaching our Mini Musical Theatre and our Junior Acting classes, as well as many holiday programs and backstage positions in our productions. In 2024 Sally helped bring Little Seed classes out to Pomona and will continue teaching Junior and Mini Acting at the Majestic Theatre in 2025. In April of last year, Sally performed in Little Seed’s production of Alice in Wonderland on Tour which was awarded Best Ensemble and presented her with Best Female Performance in the Senior Section at the Sunshine Coast Youth Theatre Festival. Sally also performed as Martha in Heathers the Musical with Cope Creative and De Jager Productions as her first out of school production. Sally can’t wait for another year full of creativity with Little Seed in 2025.

Class Teacher (Junior, Intermediate & Senior Musical Theatre)

Susie French has over forty years experience in the professional world of Musical Theatre, having appeared in major Australian tours of "The Secret Garden", "The Sound of Music", "Mamma Mia" and more. She will be appearing early next year in another season of "A Girl's Guide to World War" which won the Matilda Award for Best New Australian Work in 2020, (for which Susie won Best Supporting Actor).  She is based in Maleny, teaches acting and singing for musical theatre and is very happy to be joining the Little Seed Team in 2025.

Class Teacher (Junior, Intermediate & Senior Musical Theatre)

Leanne grew up watching movie musicals dreaming of dancing in grand productions. Her dream came true when she was cast as a dancer/actress on the television series Fame.

Leanne has appeared in four seasons of the television series Fame and Fame concerts rehearsing and filming at MGM studios in Los Angeles and Manhattan locations. She continued to work in music videos and choreographing commercials as she completed her degree in Communication at University of California San Diego. Through teaching dance, Leanne discovered her love of working with young people as an educator. She has enjoyed teaching early learning, primary, middle and high school as classroom teacher, drama and dance teacher with over 20 years working in Japan and China in international schools. Leanne continues to facilitate workshops training teachers and as a field representative for the International Baccalaureate. Leanne has recently made Noosa her home. She is so fortunate to be surrounded by the beauty of Australia where she can be inspired by the creativity and talent of the young performers at Little Seed.

Class Teacher (Intermediate & Senior Acting for Film)

A life long devotee to creating story on screen, Amanda has a Bachelor of Media Majoring in Screen Production from Macquarie University in Sydney. She is a true “jack of all trades” working as a Producer, Actor and Photographer. She has worked and studied in Australia and most notably in New York at The Atlantic Theatre Company where she became well versed in the technique of Practical Aesthetics. With a wealth of experience in front of and behind the camera, Amanda is looking forward to helping the next generation build an in depth understanding of what is involved in acting for the screen.

ADMINISTRATION / MARKETING

Email: Jack@little-seed.com.au

Represented by Triple Talent Management, Jack Ryan is an experienced Musical Theatre performer, graduating with a Bachelor of Musical Theatre from the Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre, Griffith University in 2024.

Under the direction of Mountview founder, Professor Paul Sabey, Jack has had the privilege of working alongside industry professionals Alister Smith (Elvis: A Musical Revolution, Cruel Intentions), Heidi Loveland (Wicked, Beauty and the Beast, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) and Dan Venz (Woodward Productions).

He recently appeared in QAEMT’S production of‘Legally Blonde’ as Aaron Schultz/Dewey Newcombe/Carlos/Kiki the Colourist/Emmett Cover/Warner Cover/Voice Captain. Other credits include ‘Urinetown: the Musical’ as Old Man Strong/Hot Blades Harry/Bobby Strong Cover and ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ as Featured Ensemble.

Jack is extremely passionate about the arts, being highly involved on and off the stage. Jack has experience in marketing, administration, content creation and website design.

HEAD OF COSTUMING

Leona started at Little Seed Theatre Company after many years as a dance mum, surrounded by tutus. After her child graduated Little Seed, Leona stayed to supervise, co-ordinate, create and maintain the costumes and props. Costumes are one aspect of theatre that has many dimensions – from selecting costumes to suit the level of performance to developing a theme that reinforces the directorial vision. Leona has the privilege of working on many different projects from holiday programs to major musical productions. She embraces the creative challenge of working closely with the cast and creative team to create characters with depth and visual representation that enhances the story. Some of her highlights have been costuming the 2023 production of The Crucible as well as are when actors have love an item of costume or prop so much that they want to take it home. Leona is excited for the 2024 season where embraces the idea that every production brings new ideas and allows for the development of new skills.

BUSINESS MANAGER / PRODUCTION MANAGER

Email: Richard@little-seed.com.au