Josh Stanes

Born and raised on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Josh Stanes is an Australian actor and the son of Christine (Prewett) and Vincent Stanes, a sales rep in the commercial building industry. A self-confessed movie buff even as a child, Josh grew up watching old musicals and epic classics on repeat, often memorizing large portions of dialogue from choice films and take it upon himself to act out his favorite parts and characters just for fun. Showing a natural leaning towards being a performer at a young age, Josh loved initiating homemade skits and role-playing various characters for his parents and siblings. His favorite family game was 'Charades' and his favorite childhood TV shows were 'Knight Rider' and 'MacGyver'. Josh graduated senior school with a VHA in Speech & Drama, having consistently received top marks for many of his school performances. Most notable was his rousing rendition of King Henry's pre-battle speech from William Shakespeare's 'Henry V' to a full house of approximately 1000 people. After completing school, he went on to play a number of lead and supporting roles in local stage productions. Immigrating to Auckland, New Zealand in 1999, he decided to try his hand at screen acting in television commercials and more regularly as an extra on the popular New Zealand soap, 'Shortland Street'. After moving back to Sydney, Australia in 2005, Josh took on a corporate career for just over 10 years, which left him very little time to pursue acting roles. His nights were free however, so in 2012 with the performer inside of him pressing to be let out once again, he started a rock band, assuming the role of lead vocalist and spending the next three years gigging across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during his spare time. After leaving corporate sales for good in 2016, the following year he auditioned for and was subsequently offered a main role in a local stage production of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. The spark was reignited, along with a self realization that life is too short to spend doing what you don't enjoy. His long held passion for acting combined with his deep enthusiasm for storytelling and movies, would become the catalyst for a major change in his life direction. Now actively pursuing a career in film, he has since secured both lead and supporting roles in numerous feature and short films such as 'Streets of Colour', 'The Return of Warren Murphy', 'Uniquity' and 'Lullaby'. Josh is available for both local and international work.