Mel Jarnson is an Australian and Thai actor with the world at her feet.
At only 25, Jarnson’s life has taken her all around the globe. Born in Bangkok in 1999, to her Thai diplomat father and Australian journalist mother, Jarnson’s childhood was spent on the move, raised in Bangkok with stints in Brussels and Mumbai for her parents’ work. From an early age, Jarnson was a performer. There were several evenings, she cringes, when she sat her parents down to watch evocative interpretive dance routines to The Nutcracker score of Paula Abdul.
As a child, her imagination was always in overdrive. Convinced that what she saw on television was real, Jarnson was certain that Middle Earth existed after frequent rewatches of LORD OF THE RINGS. Her mother corrected her, and told her that the closest thing that she could get to Middle Earth was by becoming an actor – her path was set. Jarnson’s drama classes became a consistent and familiar force as the family moved around the world when she was a child. Jarnson has a memory from when she was living in Mumbai, of visiting a Bollywood set and seeing actors Deepika Padukone and Neil Mukesh at work. “They looked like gods to me. They looked larger than life,” she recalls.
She was scouted as a teenager at an airport and offered a role on a popular Thai soap opera. Her memories of that time were sheer terror: of learning to hit her mark, remember her lines and not to let down any of the other cast and crew who were depending on her. “I just remember feeling paralysed,” she says. “It was not the magical experience that I had always thought it would be.”
After school, Jarnson made the decision to relocate to her literal mother country: Australia. If drama classes were one consistent element of her childhood, so too were the regular Christmases spent in Adelaide, where her mother’s family is from. To Jarnson, Australia represented a romanticized vision of friendliness, nature, stability and family. In reality, Australia required adjustment, and though Jarnson has now lived largely in Sydney for the past eight years, it took time to settle in and find her place.
Now, Jarnson feels at home in Sydney: she loves walking for hours through new neighbourhoods, going horse riding and getting frozen yoghurt before visiting an arcade. (“I like childish pastimes,” she says.) Though work often takes her elsewhere, from Montreal to London, Jarnson has just picked up the keys to her first proper home in Sydney, an exciting prospect after so many months spent living out of a suitcase. “I’m so excited to actually cook my own meal, light a candle, have a bath, watch my favourite show,” she admits. “That’s when I’m the happiest. It sounds so banal, but I think it’s so exciting.”
Acting in Australia has offered up diverse projects, from television procedurals such as the ABC’s acclaimed HARROW and the uproarious 2023 Stan miniseries C.A.U.G.H.T, to the charming 2024 romantic comedy FIVE BLIND DATES, to high octane action epics including the 2022 Liam Neeson thriller BLACKLIGHT or 2021’s MORTAL KOMBAT reboot. A fantasy nerd – and keen gamer – at heart, getting the opportunity to join an iconic video game franchise was a joy for Jarnson, who thrived learning the movement and flight choreography involved to play the vampire Nitara. Key for Jarnson with all of her characters is deep preparation, all the way down to the way the characters breathe and blink.
She is most proud of her work on the forthcoming horror film WITCHBOARD, a remake of the ‘80s classic co-starring Jamie Campbell-Bower, Antonia Desplat and Madison Iseman. So much of the film was a challenge: from the genre (Jarnson is not a horror fan), to the scale of the production and, finally, the responsibility of taking on a lead role. “I really thought I would crumble under the pressure and I felt that imposter syndrome,” she admits. “I’m really proud of myself for getting through it the way I did, and hopefully also giving a performance worthy to the project.” Still, she jokes that the subject matter of the movie – and the location that they filmed in – thoroughly spooked her; she might have slept with the lights on for many nights while making the movie in Montreal, Canada.
She longs to find future roles in the fantasy realm, which remains her first love; she namechecks recent reads that range from Spider-Man to Madeline Miller’s Circe and some of her most beloved games including God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. She is intrigued by motion capture in the gaming industry and whether there might be a role for her in that space. It’s something she really fell for after doing so much work against a green screen in MORTAL KOMBAT. “In that environment, I actually felt the most free and ready to create and play,” she explains. “It really did feel like playing.” She wants to keep chasing that sensation; it brings her back to those childhood performances that sparked her desire to act in the first place.
Beyond acting, Jarnson has become a firm fixture in Australia’s fashion scene. She has appeared in editorials for magazines including InStyle, RUSSH, marie claire, Elle Indonesia and Stellar, and worked with both Australian brands ranging from Aje, Paspaley and Camilla & Marc to global fashion icons such as Tiffany & Co, Bvlgari and Rabanne. “While fashion definitely does allow you to literally step into someone’s shoes,” she muses. “I think what I find the most fun about fashion is its ability to make you feel like yourself.”
Mel Jarnson is represented by CBM Management, Untitled, A1 and Priscilla's
