Brenton Foale

Brenton Foale was born on 10th February 1970, in Adelaide, South Australia, the eldest of three children to parents Janet Foale(dec.) and Barrie Foale. He attended Seacliff Primary School in 1975 until 1981, then continued his education at Bethesda Christian School in Adelaide until 1986. When Brenton was 10 years old he attended his first filmmakers retreat, run by the South Australian Association of Screening Education, which involved producing a short black and white film using super 8 media. Although the youngest attendee, Brenton succeeded in writing, casting, directing and editing his first short film, a drama titled "Help Is On Its Way". He attended the filmmakers retreat twice that year, and was involved in two short films as a result. The second film was a thriller titled "The Runner". In 1987 he and his family moved to Victoria, Australia, where Brenton joined the Waverley Youth Drama Group, a community theatre company in the Glen Waverley area of Melbourne. He landed the role of Reverend Hale in their production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" later that year. In 1988 Brenton wrote and performed comedy sketches for the Waverley Youth Drama Group, for their production of "Quasimodo's Merciless Revenge", a comedy review, which included both original sketches as well as tributes to comedy teams such as Monty Python and Not the Nine O'Clock News. Towards the end of 1988 Brenton played Queen Marmaduchess, the Dame character, in the pantomime Puss in Boots. Shortly after Puss in Boots, Brenton became President of the Waverley Youth Drama Group, and ran the group until 1993. Between 1987 and 1991 Brenton also appeared in television shows and movies, with appearances in Australia's long running TV soap opera "Neighbours", and the mini-series "All The Way", as well as in the television movie "The Four Minute Mile" (1988) and TV commercials. In 1991 Brenton started to develop an interest in performing magic, and soon developed his magician character "The Black Fantasm" and his clown character "Bento the Magic Clown". The names of these characters were both a play on his own name, using the initials of his name as the initials for the magician, and the clown name came from the mispronunciation of his first name by his younger Brother as an infant. He joined the Magic Circle of Victoria in 1993, and further developed his stage and performance skills, as well as continuing his study of the magical arts, with the organization. In 1996 he won the Charles Waller Cup for best magic performance. In 1992 Brenton, and his wife at the time, Amanda, formed the Montage Filmmakers Group. The group folded in 1996 when his marriage collapsed. In 2001 Brenton opened the Monash Young Magicians Club, an organization for youth who wished to learn to perform magic and it's allied arts. He ran this organization for the next two years. In 2006 Brenton studied acting classes at Film and Television Studio International, in South Melbourne, and returned to acting for screen in 2012 to appear in Strongman Pictures "Murderdrome" as a spectator in the opening credits. In the same year Brenton landed the role of Dylan in Lost Art Films' "Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla" (2013). In 2014 Brenton started to study acting through Screen Actors Australia Melbourne west, and returned to the Magic Circle of Victoria. Brenton is the founder of Melbourne Actors Meet Up Group, a networking group on Facebook for actors and film makers in Victoria. Brenton started screen writing in 2013, working on his first feature length screenplay "Iniquitous". There were 29 drafts for "Iniquitous". Brenton also heads Fantasm Productions, the production company producing "Deal".