2012 The Philosophers (post-production) Poppie

2012 Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms (TV series) Leanne

2011 Lightning Point (TV series) Amber

2009-2010 K9 (TV series) Jorjie Turner

2007 Unfinished Sky Rose

Geoff Shearer
From: The Courier-Mail

No twist in this tragic ending

PHILIPPA Coulthard says there's no secret to how her character in Ten's acclaimed drama series Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms will end up.

The rising Brisbane actor joins the series in tonight's episode, playing Leanne Walters, the innocent bystander who was among the seven people shot dead in the Milperra massacre on September 2, 1984.

"She is a young girl who is sort of in awe of all these bikies; and unfortunately ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time," says Coulthard when we catch up with her on the phone from Los Angeles, where she's looking for work.

Too young to know much about that chapter in Australian history, Coulthard says she ploughed into the research as soon as she knew she had the role. "And I didn't know a lot about bike culture. So on set I had to be taught how to sit on bikes properly because I'd never ridden one before."

Meanwhile, her ride into the acting world has been a much smoother one.

She scored the lead in the Doctor Who spin-off series K9 filmed in Brisbane; and in her last term of Year 12 at Hillbrook Anglican School landed a starring role in the teen series Lightning Point, filmed on the Gold Coast and set to air on Ten this month. "It made graduating high school very difficult, but I did," she laughs.

That work carried through the first quarter of 2011. A few months later she did the yet-to-be-released feature film The Philosophers with Rhys Wakefield and Sophie Lowe in Indonesia. After Bikie Wars wrapped, she spent time in the UK before heading to LA.

"I'm doing auditions and meeting people and seeing what it's like - and a lot of waiting," she says.

"It's like acting boot camp here, having to constantly be learning lines and running around LA to different casting directors. In Australia, I'd get like one audition a month; here I'm getting two a day."