When we were asked to choose one of our 2020 interview guests for a ‘New Year’ check in, we didn’t hesitate in selecting Grant Lyndon. 

When the renowned New York International Film Festival announced its most recent winners in December 2020, Grant Lyndon was “humbled but proud” to be among the list and acknowledged as Best Actor for his work in the acclaimed film, Ruby. 

For anyone else in the industry however, it’s no surprise, as Lyndon has been turning in acclaimed performances for years. While under the radar for the early stages of his career, during which he appeared in ABC’s Rogue Nation alongside Gold-Logie winner John Wood, Lyndon continues to attract national and (clearly) international attention for his work and media appearances, recently generating rave reviews in Frontline Views and Entertainment LA.

The New York Film Awards were held in a COVID-safe public screening event at Producer’s Club, in the heart of Manhattan, the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. 

The award is an important moment for Lyndon, who has had an arduous career as an actor in film and television, as well as in the theater and voice-over spaces in Australia. The New York International Film Awards have also offered his colleagues a way to record his hard work in the industry, but also to thank him for his contribution as one of Australia’s most reliable talents. 

In this way, Grant himself has referred to his career as “a long haul.” 

Grant Lyndon has not only stood out as an exceptional actor in any area in which he’s worked, but has also offered expertise and encouragement to motivate emerging actors through teaching, and to build empathetic connections with his characters to convey to each audience a real and profound experience that is far from mere imitation. He understands this field well and from his self-knowledge and his professional career he knows how to distinguish clearly from a neat and well-developed job from any other. 

Hence, his extraordinary skills have been recognized in productions such as Home and Away, Old School and A Place to Call Home, where in each of them he has been able to show us completely different characters, but equally impressive.

In Home and Away, Grant played Professor Calabra. There, audiences identified him with a resistance that denotes tints and shades as intense as delicate from each other. His performance gave the audience a serious, quite formal character, something abrupt that transmitted emotions against him. Such a clean performance that could make anyone disconcerted and angry just to see how well he played a disdainful and badly humored role. Afterwards, as if nothing has happened, Lyndon changes his position and shows himself to be kind, attentive and respectful. 

Without effort or tension, Grant part of Home and Away’s huge bump in ratings, making a memorable impression through the turn in the story that his character produced, unleashing new dramas and new challenges. Ultimately, Grant allowed a depth of authority with reason to underpin the storyline involving Marie Claire covergirl, Pia Miller’s character, to work through her challenges. 

For juxtaposition, a viewer can find Lyndon’s portrayal in the acclaimed series ‘Old School’, which attracted some of Australia’s highest-live-to-air ratings with more than 664,000 viewers tuning in to Grant’s performance. An eight-part series screened on ABC1, created by Paul Oliver and Steve Wright, and directed by Gregor Jordan, that follows the adventures of the retired criminal Lennie Cahill and the retired cop Ted McCabe, played by legendary actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neil (Jurassic Park). 

Marcel was crucial to the plot in Old  School, as he underpinned and greatly affected the dynamic of the long running lost love battle between Barb (Linda Cropper) and Lennie (Bryan Brown). He was the new love of Barb that set Lennie off into a jealousy spiral. The tone set by Grant on set was clearly irreplaceable, when watching the footage. He held the line between Barb & Lennie with good weight. This gave a great and realistic feel to the underworld aspect of the show. 

Last but not least, we should also mention his appearance in A Place to Call Home as Jay Kenneth Katzan III in the Do Not Go Gently episode. Ironically, his role seemed to be kind like no one else, arousing the anger and envy of others. There, Grant showed a side of himself in which his body expression said more than a thousand words. At first, without a script, he had the duty to make known an imposing, elegant and charismatic position of an epochal character. Only through his gestures, his movements and his smile he conquered the heart of the audience. Later, as if this had not been enough, he intervened with a dialogue as friendly as he had shown himself. 

The abovementioned roles are a distinct distillation and manifestation of Lyndon’s wide-ranging career path. From the early days of his career, Grant has been able to recognize his strengths and to express it, whether it was with a neutral character or with another hateful one. So much so, that even without a word or a thousand of them, he always made himself stand out. 

Not surprisingly, he has more artistic facets than just his performance in front of the cameras and in theaters. Grant is known as Australia’s ‘voice over king’, and in fact, his record in this area is as competitive as his long stage career. Thus, he has developed magnificent voice works where he is able to vary between American, British and Australian accents. 

Therefore, he has his own podcasts hosted on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple: Busy Dads, described as a podcast packed full of great information, stories, and resources for dads on the go, and The Defiance Code, a health and motivation podcast exploring remarkable mature minds and how they stay fit, happy, and vital. Productions that stand out for relying on listeners and speakers as an assertive means of communication where Grant’s background as a voice artist plays a key role in delivering a powerful message to the audience. 

On the other hand, his work is perfectly complemented by the use of his voiceover for narratives such as House Rules, Aussie Lobster Men and the Australian National Museum. Grant reliably connects with the viewers and listeners of each project, respectively, generating an undeniable added value. This also led him to be part of the animations  Mia & Me and Motown Magic, animated series with a much sought-after impact on children’s content in Australia’s continually evolving film and TV industry. 

For all these reasons, it is a pleasure for the entertainment industry to have the certainty that Grant will continue to develop new roles in the future. Building on his successes,  his next step involves productions in the US. These projects, involving award-winning filmmakers from all over the world, include a hilarious role as ‘Utag the Barbarian’ in ‘The Role World’ from Dlugos ventures, and in White Pixel’s highly-anticipated feature film project, ‘The Other Mike.’

“I’m super excited because I’m in a place where I can draw on all of my experience from both my life AND my career. A great part of my inspiration also comes from my family. My four kids keep me very real & greatly inspired with a healthy curiosity for the arts. The innocense and command of “Why not?” from a child always brings me into thinking  – “Yeah, why the hell not!”.

Adding more excitement to our conversation, Grant continues. 

“My 2021 is going to be filled with breaking down even more barriers, and keeping a youthful thirst for work alive. In a lot of ways I’m at a time in my career when I feel this really is just the beginning. I’m very grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had to date, but am even more excited for what’s to come!”