I'm now based in Los Angeles, California and I live on the east side... right now in Highland Park.

I’ve just finished working on two really exciting jobs. I play Jackie Kennedy on the upcoming season of Netflix’s The Crown, and a BBC One X HBO co-production called Rellik just aired in the UK and will air in North America in April next year.

Working on The Crown was a dream come true, literally. It’s my favorite show on television. I couldn’t believe I was going to get to work on it.

Today, I’m having a bit of a classic Monday. I had a really busy weekend of auditions (sometimes it happens that way), and last week was nutty too, so I’m sort of debriefing and catching up on things that fell by the wayside. Coffee, emails, phone calls, yoga, and dinner with friends later.

The sometimes scary, sometimes life-affirming feeling of really going after what you want.

Los Angeles, while it’s also a showbusiness city, is fundamentally creative.  You can almost feel it, certainly in specific neighborhoods. There are wildly talented, creative people thinking and hustling and working everywhere. It’s inspiring. It makes me feel a part of something. It also makes me want to work hard. 

LA also has so many great events, films, Q&As, art exhibitions, panel discussions etc. that, on a practical level, serve as fuel for thought and inspiration. 

It has similarities and differences. I’m sure every acting community in the world is slightly different. Here, of course, it’s just massive. It’s fiercely competitive. It’s sprawling. To me, it feels like there are rungs of a ladder to climb, and people exist and create and compete at different levels. That, or that there’s a series of rooms you earn your way into, one after the next. So it doesn’t feel like one big community. It feels disparate, sometimes frustratingly so.

In South Africa, it was much more intimate and familiar. A loving community of people who had mostly all come up through theatre or film programmes at schools throughout the country. There was a getting-to-know-each-other process that I’m not sure exists here. Maybe more in New York.

Oh gosh, it’s so personal. It can be incredibly inspiring and exciting and satisfying. And it can be tremendously difficult — desperate, even. I have experienced both.

I would recommend living abroad if you understand that there will be challenges beyond your anticipation; that for some people dreams will thrive, and for others dreams may crumble, slowly and painfully. But I suppose that’s also just life. God, I sound so bleak! I really do believe it’s something worth doing, but with clear eyes.

I go to the movies, at the cinema. Especially alone, I get a different kind of creative inspiration. I go and watch live music. I go for a long walk in the mountains, or along the beach.

Haha… no? I disguise my accent as much as possible when I audition. Even in conversations with the director or casting director, unless I’m feeling resentful, and then I just talk like me and let go of the fear that they will then be listening for faults in my American or British accent. I think it’s worked equally in my favor as it has against me. Some people like that I’m from this relatively obscure foreign place — they find it dynamic and interesting. Others just think, “Why not hire an American?”, I’m sure. I think it’s probably different for Brits and Australians. They’re practically gold dust over here.

I really like, “See ya!”. I feel like I’m inside one of the ’90s teen films I grew up on in South Africa.

Make a real effort to befriend some people. LA can be a lonely place — people are so isolated and far apart. Date friends, be bold and ask people for their numbers when you feel a real connection, and then have lunch or a drink or exercise with them! People love a good hike-date here. Real friends will save your life in LA.

If you work for yourself (an actor), give your days some structure. It can feel contrived, but while waiting for the phone to ring it will keep you sane if you create a life for yourself that isn’t reliant on other people giving you permission. Find a place to do yoga, or whatever you dig; enroll in a class of some kind (pottery, painting, guitar… there is EVERYTHING here). Give your days a shape you can count on.

PadMapper and Westside Rentals and Craigslist...I used them all. Also a lot of the great spots to rent in LA never even get listed. So get out there, talk to people, make friends, and ask around.

Also, unless you’re really into the ‘Hollywood Scene’ as you’ve heard of it, DO NOT MOVE TO WEST HOLLYWOOD OR BEVERLY HILLS. That’s just my (judgmental) two cents.

It’s really, really different. More than you think. You will feel very, very foreign.

It will take time. Give it time. Unless it’s making you miserable… if you’re unhappy, be honest with yourself about that.  Don’t get bitter. Work hard.

I started with an O1, and now I have a Green Card.  My work in Canada helped me get an O1 and then when I got my first big American job, Quarry, that helped me get my Green Card. Don’t come without a visa and the ability to work. The days of producers and directors falling in love with you and getting you papers are almost gone; it’s so rare that they do that now. Get your visa, then come.   

I was feeling really frustrated by the industry and I felt depressed about not having worked in seven months (I laugh at this now). Friends of mine and I started dreaming about this coffee shop and bakery idea — we are all expat South Africans, homesick and over-confident — and it all started falling into place. We just kept following our noses, learned so much as we went, and opened Nelson the Seagull in Gastown, Vancouver, about three months after conceiving the idea. It was mad. And everything we all needed.

Bar Bandini (bar); Sqirl and  Alimento (restaurants); Tappan Collective (gallery); and Mohawk General Store (store).

At home, with a cup of LA-roasted Canyon Coffee. 

A chocolate Steri-Stumpie, from any convenience store. South African design, clothing and jewellery… there are the most beautiful stores all over Cape Town… or just go to Neighbourgoods Market.