Role in BBC series is a step towards stardom for young Cork actor
Samuel Palliser-Kehoe in Nova Jones, on CBBC and RTÉ2.
Last year’s series of lockdowns often brought periods of boredom for many, but for one Cork 12-year-old, 2020 offered up an exciting new experience: the chance to star in a CBBC television show.
Samuel Palliser-Kehoe from Carrigaline nabbed his role in Nova Jones, a new series that has just started airing on CBBC and RTÉ2, by virtual audition this time last year. The part of Kid Songwriter marks his television acting debut.
"Samuel did a self-tape for his agent and within a month we were in Belfast filming. It all happened really quickly," says Samuel's mother Orla.
"It was really exciting. We didn't know much about the show at the time and it was only when we got there that we realised that it was a bigger deal than we first thought. We were being picked up by drivers who had just finished work on Line of Duty to get to set. It was all just amazing. Everyone on the team was so lovely, it was like a family there."
Orla is a singing teacher at the Performers Academy in Cork city, and because she was teaching via Zoom at the time, she moved with Samuel to an apartment in Belfast for the three months of filming.
Samuel’s favourite part of the journey up and down from Cork was showing gardaí his official BBC letter at checkpoints.
"I've been acting and singing since I was three so this was a dream come true. I told my friends I was going away to film and they were shocked. My entire school has been watching the trailers and I've had people coming up to me that I've never met telling me that I'm cool," Samuel says.
"I never thought of my interest in performing as special because the people I was generally around were always doing the same stuff as me. It was just a part of daily life.”
Samuel comes from a long line of performers. His uncle is a conductor and his aunt is a musician in London; Samuel’s brother Matthew is currently pursuing a musical theatre degree in Cork School of Music, and his sister Abbie plans on moving to London to work as an actress.
“When Samuel was born I was the assistant musical director on the Everyman panto and I had him in a sling. As he got older I would send him to classes while I was teaching and now I spend most of my life driving him around,” Orla says, laughing.
Nova Jones centres around an intergalactic pop star (Molly Rainford) as she travels through space with Samuel’s character, as well as two other characters played by Irish actors, David Byrne and John Lynn. Even comedian Kevin McGaharan makes an appearance on the show.
When the opportunity came about, Orla didn’t want Samuel to miss it. "As a parent, I was nervous about telling the school [Educate Together Carrigaline] but they were just amazing. His teacher, Hannah, gave us all the materials and said to go have fun and she'd catch him up. They saw it as an educational experience and Hannah has a sister in the West End so she totally gets what Samuel is doing," she says.
Samuel’s teachers weren’t the only ones to lend support. "So many people helped with this. My dad was working full time from home while we were away and was doing everything on his own,” says Samuel.
To the family, it was all worth it. "We always say to him: 'this is something to do now and if you want to do it later, great. If you don't, well it was something you did that was great fun when you were 11'," Orla says.
And is acting full-time something Samuel can see himself doing in the future? “I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing," he says. "But acting will definitely be a big part of my life."
