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Maddy Jevic shows her caring side in ‘Home and Away’

Tim Franklin as Colby in and Maddy Jevic as Amber in ‘Home and Away.’

After playing a nurse in three seasons of Fremantle/Foxtel’s Wentworth, Maddy Jevic was delighted when she was offered the role of a carer in Home and Away.

The Seven Network soap was among her favourite shows when she grew up in Adelaide. As a huge fan of Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster, Maddy had wanted to be an actress since she was four or five.

Apart from the regular employment in Seven’s serial, another attraction for her was the chance to play a character who is very different from Wentworth’s nurse Lee Radcliffe.

On Thursday Jevic makes her debut as Amber Simmons, who helps wheelchair-bound John Palmer (Shane Withington) with his rehabilitation after he suffered a stroke.

Unlike Radcliffe, who hated her job in the prison, Amber is loyal, funny and tough. Viewers will quickly learn that Amber grew up in Mangrove River and knows Willow (Sarah Roberts), old flame Dean (Patrick O’Connor) and Colby (Tim Franklin), all of whom are surprised when she arrives in the Bay.

Old wounds are reopened when she realises Colby is the local cop.

“I love my character, she’s fun to play,” says Maddy, who started work on the show in January and like all her colleagues was stood down for six or seven weeks due to the pandemic. “Everyone on the show was so welcoming and warm.”


Shane Withington and Maddy Jevic.

Jevic moved to Melbourne when she was 18 to study for a year at the 16th Street Actors Studio. One of her teachers was Kerry Armstrong, who quickly became a mentor to the young actress.

“Kerry flipped everything I thought about acting,” she says. “She taught me how to put my soul on the line. Acting became so much more rewarding the fulfilling.”

She scored her first big role as Brianna Wheeler in the ABC/Gristmill comedy Upper Middle Bogan. Last year she played phys ed teacher Mrs Parides in the ABC/Gristmill’s The InBESTigators.

After signing with US manager Storyline Entertainment, she self-tested for a number of US roles. Cracking the US is something she’s determined to do, but for now she is very much at home on Home and Away.