Zoe Terakes opens the door to Wentworths final season

WENTWORTH
Series final, Tuesday, 8.30pm, Fox Showcase

After serving eight years of hard drama, Wentworth, the critically acclaimed reboot of Prisoner will slam shut its bars one last time. It’s a bittersweet moment for the famously tight cast, bound together by both the physicality of the location and the intensity of the narrative.

As some of the biggest names in Australian drama (Pamela Rabe, Susie Porter, Marta Dusseldorp, Kate Box, Leah Purcell) prepare for release, a relatively new inmate is set to fly high. Twenty-one-year-old Zoe Terakes, who arrived in H Block as transgender man, Reb Keane, in season seven, has already appeared alongside Box on Amazon Prime’s comedy The Moth Effect, and joined Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy on that platform’s Liane Moriarty thriller Nine Perfect Strangers.

“I feel very lucky to be in the position that I’m in and to work with the people I have,” says Terakes. “Wentworth was one of the greatest jobs of my life, and I know everybody says this, but it’s true. It is a family and I went, ‘Oh man, I have to say goodbye so quickly!’”

Having landed a role at the age of 17 opposite Dusseldorp in ABC’s Janet King, Terakes went on to wow the Sydney theatre scene in director Iain Sinclair’s production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. Upon coming out to the industry as non-binary trans masculine at the age of 19, Terakes was warned by well-meaning colleagues about limiting their career opportunities. The opposite turned out to be true.

Wentworth was one of the greatest jobs of my life, and I know everybody says this, but it’s true. It is a family.

Zoe Terakes

“I had people tell me that I was making the wrong decision, and that it’s safer just to keep that stuff to yourself, and I understand why they say it. You do get pigeonholed. But by the same token, if people don’t want to work with me or think I can only do one thing, I don’t really want to work with them either. I think [coming out] fine-tunes the kinds of jobs you want to do.”

As a “bit of a shape-shifter”, Terakes doesn’t feel confined to transgender or non-binary roles, which, it is safe to say, are not abundant in local film and television. Although it wasn’t discussed on the set of Nine Perfect Strangers, they consider their character – Glory, a wellness retreat worker – to be female.

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