Amy Mathews (born 29 March 1979) is an Australian television, film and theatre actress. She is best known for her role as Rachel Armstrong in Australian soap opera ''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (often abbreviated as ''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip ...

''.

Early life

Mathews was born in

Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...

, but has spent most of her life in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. She was offered a scholarship at The University of the Arts in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania, US, which she completed. She then enrolled in and completed a two-year acting course in

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surroun ...

, Sydney, where she met fellow ''Home and Away'' actor

Jon Sivewright Jon Sivewright (born 22 May 1965) is an Australian actor. He is best known for portraying Tony Holden in Home and Away, a role he played from 2005 to 2010 Biography Before becoming an actor he worked as a miner and spent 12 years as a fire ...

, who plays Tony Holden, her husband on the show.

Career

Mathews became involved with the

Bell Shakespeare Company Bell Shakespeare is an Australian theatre company specialising in the works of William Shakespeare, his contemporaries and other classics. It is based in Sydney. The Bell Shakespeare vision is to create theatre that allows audiences of all wal ...

. She performed as part of the "Actors at Work" program touring high schools in Australia and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. She has a passion for the theatre, her first role was in 2003 with ''Cigarettes and Chocolate and Other Hang Ups''. Mathews other theatre credits include ''Tracked'', ''Push Up 1-3'', ''Chicom'', ''Orange Flower Water''. She is currently appearing in ''Transparency''. Mathews made her acting debut on screen in 2001 when she made a guest appearance in the short-lived television series '' Head Start''. She has had several roles on other television series including ''

Always Greener ''Always Greener'' was an Australian television drama/ comedy series that aired on the Seven Network which followed the fortunes of two families, one from the city and the other from the country, when they decide to switch homes and start a new ...

'', ''

Blue Heelers ''Blue Heelers'' is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for 12 years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted the ever ...

'', ''Love Bytes'', '' All Saints'' and the British series ''

Jeopardy ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

''. Before landing the role of Rachel Armstrong on Australian soap opera ''

'', she waited tables until she could make enough money. Mathews played the role of doctor and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

Rachel Armstrong since the first episode of the 2006 season, until 2010 when she departed the show. The reason she decided to leave was because she wanted to move on and try new projects. The role of Rachel won Mathews the

Logie Award for Most Popular New Female Talent The Silver Logie for Most Popular New Female Talent was an award presented at the Australian TV Week Logie Awards. It was first awarded at the 41st Annual TV Week Logie Awards ceremony, held in 1999. The award is given to honour a standout perfo ...

in 2007. Following her departure from ''Home and Away'', Mathews made a guest appearances in two episodes of the popular television series ''

Packed to the Rafters ''Packed to the Rafters'' was an Australian family-oriented comedy drama television program which premiered on the Seven Network on Tuesday 26 August 2008 at 8:30 pm. The show continued on Tuesdays in this timeslot for its entire run. The d ...

''. Her most recent guest roles include '' Rescue: Special Ops'' and ''

Crownies ''Crownies'' is an Australian television drama series which was originally broadcast on ABC1 from 14 July until 1 December 2011. The series revolves around a group of solicitors fresh from law school, working with Crown Prosecutors, who are the ...

'' which stars former ''Home and Away'' co-stars

Todd Lasance Todd James Lasance (born 18 February 1985) is an Australian actor, best recognised for his roles in Australian television including Aden Jefferies on ''Home and Away'', Cam Jackson on '' Rescue: Special Ops'', Ben McMahon on ''Crownies'' and Maj ...

and

Indiana Evans Indiana Rose Evans (born 27 July 1990) is an Australian actress. She is known for her roles in ''Home and Away'' as Matilda Hunter, '' H2O: Just Add Water'' as Bella Hartley, and '' Blue Lagoon: The Awakening'' as Emmaline Robinson. Early lif ...

. In 2007, Mathews starred in the Australian film ''

Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

'', in which she had just begun her run on ''Home and Away'' while shooting the film. ''Gabriel'' is her only film credit. Since leaving

, she has starred on stage in various plays, and in t.v commercials. She has an interest in writing and directing, and she currently runs her own blog, and is studying surface design.

Filmography

Theatre

* 2003: ''Cigarettes and Chocolate and Other Hang Ups'' ... Gemma (

Darlinghurst Theatre Darlinghurst Theatre is an independent theatre company based at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. Glenn Terry established the company in 1993 initially as an inner-city drama school. Darlinghurst Theatre productions were ...

) * 2003: ''Tracked'' ... Rose (The Old Fitzroy Theatre) * 2005: ''Push Up 1-3'' ... Sabine * 2010: ''Chicom'' ... Grunt 3 (New Theatre) * 2011: ''Orange Flower Water'' ... Cathy Calhoun (Darlinghurst Theatre) * 2011: ''Transparency'' ... Jessica (

Seymour Centre The Seymour Centre is a multi-purpose performing arts centre within the University of Sydney in the Australian city of Sydney. It is located on the corner of City Rd and Cleveland St in Chippendale, just south-west of the city centre. The b ...

and Riverside Theatre)

References

External links

Official site
*

at

RTÉ.ie RTÉ.ie is the brand name and home of Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)'s online activities, located at the URL https://www.rte.ie/. The site began publishing on 26 May 1996. According to RTÉ, it operates on an entirely com ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Amy 1979 births Australian soap opera actresses Australian stage actresses Living people Logie Award winners University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni