George Mason (actor)

Mason was born and raised in Invercargill.^[2] He has two elder sisters. He attended Southland Boys' High School,^[2] where he played rugby for the Southland Boys' High School 1st XV and competed in speech competitions.^[3] Mason moved to Wellington in 2009 to study a Bachelor of Performing Arts at the Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School.^[2][4]

Mason became engaged to his partner, French model Manon Buchalet in 2016.^[5]

Mason was thirteen years old when a family friend encouraged him to audition for a role in the 2005 drama film 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous.^[6][7] Mason won the role of school bully Arch, and the film marked his first acting job. It also inspired him to pursue acting as a full-time career.^[6][7] In 2011, Mason flew himself to Auckland from Arrowtown to audition for the recurring role of Regan Ames in the New Zealand medical drama Shortland Street. Mason had a second audition and learned he had secured the part as he was boarding his flight home.^[3] He filmed his first scenes in February and made his first appearance as Regan on 15 April 2011. Mason described his character as "the new bad boy on the block."^[2]

Mason had a small role in the television film Tangiwai: A Love Story, which dramatises the Tangiwai disaster.^[3] He followed this with a supporting role in the 2013 New Zealand crime drama The Blue Rose, alongside Antonia Prebble.^[8] That same year, he made a guest appearance in the mystery drama Top of the Lake.^[9] Mason also appeared in the feature film 3 Mile Limit, which tells the story of pirate radio station Radio Hauraki.^[8]

Mason joined the cast of comedy-drama Go Girls in 2012. He attended around five auditions, before he was cast as the show's narrator, Ted Keegan, for the fifth season, which aired in 2013.^[8] When Go Girls was cancelled at the end of the season, Mason tried to find work in Los Angeles and Sydney. He then relocated to Melbourne, where he worked as a nanny and a labourer. Mason decided to contact fellow New Zealand actor Danielle Cormack and her agent secured him an audition for a Channel 7 pilot. The show was not picked up, but he was then asked to audition for the role of Martin "Ash" Ashford in the soap opera Home and Away.^[10] Mason's character was introduced as a friend of established character Darryl Braxton (Steve Peacocke) in October 2014.^[11] Mason reprised his role as Ash in three feature length specials; Home and Away: An Eye for an Eye (2015),^[12] Home and Away: Revenge (2016),^[13] and Home and Away: All or Nothing (2017).^[14]

In 2017, Mason secured his first modelling job with underwear and clothing brand Bonds.^[15] In April 2018, Mason confirmed that he had filmed his final scenes for Home and Away, which aired later that year.^[16] That same year, he filmed the musical feature Daffodils.^[17] The film, based on a stage play by Rochelle Bright, was released on 21 March 2019.^[18][19] Mason stars as Eric, alongside Rose McIver as his love interest Rose, and singer Kimbra.^[17] He also joined the cast of Dirt Music, a film adaptation of Tim Winton's novel of the same name, alongside Garrett Hedlund and Kelly Macdonald. It was filmed in Western Australia.^[20]

• George Mason at IMDb