Ilana Charnelle
Voice Actor
Ilana Charnelle has been performing since she was two years old, with experience in screen acting, theatre acting, theatre devising and producing, cabaret performance, and songwriting. Beginning her professional career at age eight with appearances in well-known Australian television series such as ‘Round The Twist’, ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Summer Heights High’, Ilana has also starred in numerous theatrical productions, including originating the role of Kat in Daniel Lammin’s ‘The Cutting Boys’, where her performance was praised as “the stand out performance… such skill that I still get goose bumps when I think of it” (Theatre People). Ilana has trained at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) (Screen Actor’s Studio, 2018) and Monash University (Bachelor of Performing Arts, 2011). She has created and performed three solo cabaret shows, ‘A Class Act’ (2016), ‘Play Nice’ (2018), which was nominated for Musical Direction (Cabaret) at the Green Room Awards, and most recently, ‘Flies on What-If Island’ (2024), which won the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Access and Inclusion Award. In 2012, she completed her Honours (Theatre and Performance) in which she researched the use of Auslan in heightened moments of the human experience to create unique bilingual theatre. Ilana is the co-founder of Deafferent Theatre, a bilingual company that makes work for and by Deaf and non-Deaf people. Ilana and her co-founder Jessica Moody create work that aims to bridge the artistic and Deaf communities and resonate equally for all audiences, regardless of language preference. Ilana is a Certified Provisional Auslan (Australian Sign Language) interpreter, gaining her NAATI qualification in 2015. She is based in Melbourne/Naarm, and has also lived and performed in the UK, where she was introduced to the delightful Erika Sanderson and consequently NoSleep.