Exclusive: Like many Australian actors before her, Rhiannon Fish remembered being told that real success was only possible under the bright lights of Hollywood.
So the 35-year-old followed the well-trodden path to Los Angeles – only to realise she’d made a mistake.
Rhiannon Fish is an Aussie rom-com queen thanks to the Hallmark Channel. Nine
Fish began her career with a recurring role on Neighbours in 2003 and later spent three years starring as April Scott on rival soap Home and Away.
After leaving Summer Bay, Fish moved halfway around the world in 2014.
“There was no debate, that’s what you had to do,” she told nine.com.au. “So I did, and then was immediately very, very lonely.”
It was only after she had left home that Fish stopped and “checked in with herself”.
Once she did, she realised she wasn’t happy.
“The grind of auditioning and being told ‘no’, sometimes up to three, four times a day, and ‘no’ for reasons that can be very hurtful, it knocked me down,” she shared.
“And I then, quote-unquote, ‘Took a break.’ It’s not like I was offered anything, so I wasn’t taking a break from anything, but I did. I stepped back from the industry, I told my managers at the time, ‘I need to heal some stuff in myself, I think.’ ”
Fish then moved again, this time to Canada, where she was born and has extended family.
There, she auditioned for a “very, very small part” in a 2020 Hallmark movie, got the role and, as they say, the rest is history.
Fish, pictured in 2013, made her start on Aussie soaps including Neighbours and Home and Away. Getty
Six years on, Fish is a certified rom-com queen, leading up to six TV films a year for the made-for-TV movie channel.
“I really, finally, for the first time in a long time feel like I’ve found my stride and that I’m in a pocket that feels really good both to me personally and professionally,” Fish said.
It’s an often chaotic world of rapid turnarounds on shoots across the world. They can film entire movies in two weeks, often with little notice.
In that sense, her Australian TV past provided an incredible training ground.
Fish’s films have taken her everywhere from Queensland to Machu Picchu. Hallmark Channel
“They’re turning them out super, super quickly,” Fish said of soaps.
“It means when I came into this movie-for-television Hallmark world, and we’re making feature-length films sometimes in 12 days, to me, it was easy.
“In Australia you show up, you know your dialogue and if you don’t know it, somebody else is going to step up and take your spot. You can’t mess around. So, it has been invaluable what I learnt growing up on screen in Australia.”
Fish has been welcomed by Hallmark’s large, passionate fan base and has discovered how much these types of films can touch people.
“I met hospice nurses and people that are doing jobs that I could never in my wildest dreams fathom,” she said.
“They’ll say, ‘Thank you for what you guys do,’ and it’s like, the fact that we get to do anything that on any level serves you – these people that are doing quite literally the Lord’s work – what a gift!” she said.
Now, she can’t imagine her career in any other way.
“I want to dig my heels in and continue to grow with the network,” she said.
“This is the best job in the world, really.”