Presley Massara

Early life

Massara, of Irish-Italian descent, was born and raised in Coolbinia, Western Australia along with an older and younger sister. His younger sister, Indiana Massara, is also an actor.

Massara began performing at a young age as an actor, dancer, singer and harp player. At the age of three, he won his first talent competition when he sang True Colours. A year later, he appeared in his first international commercial for Brownes Dairy, Australia. As a child, he would perform "news reports" for the family, in multiple languages with commercial breaks, singing and dancing. His parents saw how much he loved performing and supported his passion.

He began doing live musical theatre, with his first casting as a dancing cow on stage for a local theatre company. He then began working with an acting coach, and promptly started booking commercials. He was also selected as one of two boys nationwide to appear in the Australian Government advertising campaign for Family Tax Benefits. From there, he won several modeling competitions and appeared in multiple national campaigns, including Betts.

He cites Hugh Jackman as an inspiration for his versatility as a performer.

Career

Massara performed in numerous live musical theatre productions as a child, appearing in Phoenix Theatre Production's Alice in Wonderland (directed by Jane Sherwood), as Friedrich Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (directed by Ryan Taaffe), and in Trinity College's Pinnochio. He then performed in the Todd McKenney Telethon Concert Series.

In 2014, he won an academic scholarship to Perth Modern School where his favorite subject was music, and he played the harp, piano and rugby. In between performing and attending high school, Massara trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. He then transferred to the School of Isolated and Distance Education in order to pursue his career.

In 2015, he appeared in the film The Book of Truth (written by Kellen Ho, Uyen Kha, Seulgi Judith Park, Kevin Shirka, and writer/director Aidan Defers), twice in the hit series Sh!t Happens, and in the Funny or Die campaigns Dove #SizeMatters: Men Make a Choice and Candy Apple Pink.

In 2016, Massara made his international film debut when he was cast in the lead role of action hero Aaron Stevens, a 14-year-old teenager who stumbles across a bank robbery gone wrong and is hunted down by one of the psychotic robbers, in the American-Canadian adaptation of the Amazon number one bestseller The Pineville Heist (2016). Massara told Australia's Today Tonight, "He's just this normal high school kid who is in the woods and then finds a van full of money." He appeared alongside fellow Western Australian actors Priscilla-Anne Forder and Jacob Brown, and received rave reviews following the film's release. After completing filming in Canada, Massara relocated to Los Angeles with his family.

Shortly after the film's release, Massara returned to Australia to play the role of Johnny Casino in the Australian Performing Arts Network's production of Grease: The Musical! alongside Home and Away's Lynn McGranger and Dancing With the Stars' Carmelo Pizzino. He was then selected as one of three males to represent Australia in the show's USA Broadway tour in New York and Florida which garnered him rave reviews. He is set to appear in the upcoming horror film William Froste.

Massara supports the organization Kip4Kids, whose vision is to improve education for children around the world.

Awards and nominations

Massara won the award for Best Actor at Filmbites, Western Australia.

The Pineville Heist, in which Massara played the lead role of Aaron Stevens, was awarded Best Picture at the Chandler International Film Festival in 2016 and Best Editing of a Feature Film at the Melbourne Indie Film Festival in 2016. It also won the Bronze Award for Best Original Score at the Global Music Awards, and garnered five additional nominations at the Melbourne Indie Film Festival, two nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Editing at the 28th West Australian Screen Awards, two nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Editing at the Hoboken International Film Festival, and a nomination for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Toronto International Film and Video Awards. The film was an official selection for the Newark International Film Festival, the Hudson Valley International Film Festival, and the Illinois International Film Festival.