‘Heartbreak High’: Get to Know Season 3 Newcomer Ben Turland
What To Know
- Ben Turland is a new addition to Heartbreak High Season 3.
- He plays Liam, a flirty new character who works with Harper at the local carnival.
- Turland is best known for his roles in Australian soap operas.
It may be Year 12 at Hartley High, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any new kids in class. Technically, Ben Turland doesn’t play a student in Netflix’s Heartbreak High, but he is a newcomer to the show.
Amerie (Ayesha Madon) and her friends don’t limit their chaos to school in the third and final season of the Australian teen drama. Harper gets a job at the local carnival, where she becomes coworkers with Turland’s flirty Liam. (“Lock up your daughters,” Amerie quips after he turns on the charm.) Things get complicated when Amerie and Harper plan a prank involving a carnival ride, only for it to go terribly wrong. It puts Liam in the gang’s orbit — specifically Harper’s — from there on out.
We’ve had plenty of time to get to know the core Heartbreak High actors over the past few seasons, but who’s the new one shaking things up as the show reaches the finish line? Swooon has the full rundown on Turland for you to peruse while you binge Season 3.
Who is Ben Turlan?
The 27-year-old actor got his start as a dancer. Alongside his dance group Lil’ Banditz Krew, 12-year-old Turland made it all the way to the semi-finals of Australia’s Got Talent. “AGT was a huge kind of a realization for me,” he told Radio Times in 2020. “I realized that even if you work your hardest, maybe it’s where not where you’re meant to be. So it was after that I started really pursuing acting because I thought maybe you’re not going to go down the path you think you’re going to go down. But that was a lot of fun. I wasn’t going to school much, I was dancing 3-4 days a week, full time. That was great for me, I was traveling the world — it was awesome.”
He worked as a dancer on The X Factor Australia and The Voice Australia while pursuing acting roles. In 2014, he made his TV debut via a guest appearance in Love Child, and spent the next few years making a name for himself in the Australian soap opera genre.
What else has Ben Turlan been in before?
In 2016, Turlan snagged his first big role in long-running Home and Away, playing foster kid Jordan Walsh. Three years later, Turland moved on to another soap called Neighbours, taking on the role of Hendrix Greyson. He also played the role, which earned him a Best Daytime Star nomination at the 2022 Inside Soap Awards, in the spinoff Erinsborough High.
“I used to watch Neighbours after school and now I’m in scenes with Karl and Susan!” he told Pocketmags. “I never even thought I’d be an actor. I get messages from my friends telling me they’re watching me on TV and how weird it is!”
Heartbreak High is Turlan’s first project since the 2022 miniseries Riptide and 2023’s Paper Dolls. Let us know your thoughts on his new character in the comments section below!
Heartbreak High, Season 3, Streaming Now, Netflix
