Kyle Shilling fondly remembers the dinners at his nan and pop’s house when he was 11 years old.

In front of the TV, dinner at the ready, they’d be sat in the lounge room waiting for 7pm to roll around. Because this was Home & Away time.

Sat in front of his nan while she ran her fingers through his hair, they waited somewhat patiently for the start of one of their favourite shows.

“She was always fidgety, so she always used to either scratch my head or comb my hair,” he said.

“And I used to really enjoy that so I’d kind of sit there, relaxing, and kind of just dive into this world watching with my nan and pop. And it was always Home & Away.”

Now, the Widjabul man of the Bundjalung nation is playing the show’s first ever Indigenous main character.

Shilling has been on our screens since January as suave surfer Mali Hudson, but the young actor has been in the industry for a while now.

“As a kid I always had that love of performing,” he said.

“Me and my brothers we would always film videos of us lip-syncing songs so we’d always get ourselves dressed up.

“And so, I think it was always there but I never thought it could be a career.”