Biography
At only 21 years of age, Marina Diraki is already a well known star with her break-out role as "Tilly Stein" in Australia drama series "Counter Play" airing on Amazon Prime worldwide and Australia's Channel 9 network and 9Go! for two consecutive seasons. With a large background in theatre and musical theatre, Marina has quickly grown to become a well respected actress in the industry.
Born in Melbourne, Australia on October 5th 1998, Marina Diraki continuously found herself in roles in the dramatic arts. From the age of six, Marina has earned role after role in theatre productions, dance productions and musicals. Her first major theatrical role was in 2013 in the musical production "Tin Pan Sally" where she played the lead villain "Lilly Lucre". Receiving tremendous praise for both her comedic and dramatic performance, Marina began earning more theatrical roles such as the dark lead "Mary Maloney" in an adaptation of Roald Dhal's "Lamb to the Slaughter". In her early teenage years Marina began training with some of the best well known industry professionals including acting coach Kristina Sexton.
In 2016 Marina auditioned for Premiere, a performing arts program hosted in Orlando, Florida. After passing 2 intensive auditions against thousands of other actors and actresses, Marina was flown to America to attend the program and train with acting coaches and celebrity guests such as Hayden Byerly, Madison Hu, Raven Simone, Miranda May, Peyton List, Spencer List and Lauren Taylor. After a week of intensive training, Marina auditioned in front of several groups of over 30 industry professionals from around the world and received numerous callbacks which led to Marina being signed with Extra Edge Talent. Since her success following Premiere, Marina has since returned as the Australian Ambassador for Premiere in 2018, coaching and mentoring children and young adults about acting and performing.
Marina also works as a model, influencer (you can find her on Instagram at @marinadiraki) and YouTuber (her YouTube channel is called "Marina In The Making"). In 2018 Marina also began teaching acting to children at Ashworks Performing Arts, further developing her leadership and improvisation skills by teaching and assisting in putting on productions.
Marina is devoted to her passion of performing arts as well as education, and after only a mere 5 months of graduating high school Marina landing her role of "Tilly Stein" in "Counter Play" after being the first of the day to audition, and has since filmed 2 seasons of the show. Following her first television success, Marina found herself starring in multiple commercials and short films including the 2019 short film "Hide", starring as Brittany in the 360 VR film about a school shooting.
Marina is currently studying a double degree of Law and Arts (majoring in literature and minoring in criminology) at Monash University, and is currently signed with Commercial Talent Management. Marina has proven to be a hard-working, talented and resilient young lady who is already making a large name for herself in the industry. Definitely one to keep an eye out for, Marina's drive and passion for acting has already led her to tremendous success.
