At just 17 years old, Emily Bester has graced the silver screen four times, and after being unexpectedly accepted into NIDA, she is now aiming for the stars.
Her most recent role in the short film ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ premiered at the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in December 2025. The film, directed by Jennie Feyen and produced by the Young Actors Assembly, explores mature themes of mental health and eating disorders, with the young actor’s character acting as a guiding light for the protagonist.
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“I had my role as Isabelle, who’s the protagonist’s sister’s best friend,” Bester told ITC.
“I sat with that character for about four months, which was really great to have that kind of time to work with a director and flesh it out. She’s bold, she’s confident, she has had her own struggles in mental health, and so is sort of a guidance system for the protagonist, Frankie.”
Bester shared it was important to involve people who had real-life experience with the movie’s themes, whether it was their own or someone they knew. The film aims to shine a light on how body image doesn’t just affect those personally; it also bleeds into their relationships.
Her own inspiration sparked from her own struggles with body image and eating disorders at a young age. A perspective that allowed her to embody the character Isabelle through her personal experiences.
“I was able to represent somebody who’s come out of it and is on the other side and is able to use their experience to support and guide somebody else in a sort of meta way, because that was very similar to my experience,” she said.
Let Them Eat Cake has left Australian theatres and is doing the rounds at film festivals before its online international release in July.
In the meantime, after spending year 12 studying and completing four stage productions and two films, Bester is focusing on her enrolment at NIDA drama school in place of her disrupted travel ambitions.
Setting Sail To A Different Course
Bester had just finished her HSC exams and was mentally preparing for a Europe gap year when she received an unexpected call, “I got the call back, and I was really confused. I was like, wait, what!?”
It was NIDA, asking the young talent for a callback audition, which cemented her place in the school.
Although Bester has been acting since she was four and in the industry since she was 13, her intention was to “tank” the audition, as she felt it would be unlikely for her to be accepted at 17, and it is well known that NIDA tends not to accept people who audition after recently completing their HSC.
“I was like, I’ll apply anyway, just to support my application for the next year. Because I was like, Oh, I’m not going to get in. So I’ll just, in a way, tank this audition so that, next year, all that they can really say is, oh my gosh, she’s improved so much. But I filmed the audition maybe two days before it was due, and I sent it in,” she retold.
The Walk To Fame
Despite her youth, she has had a fruitful career filled with many eye-opening experiences, some better than others. Through trials and tribulations, she has discovered that singing and dancing are not for her; she’d like to explore other themes, such as horror, stating, “I think I’ve got a decent scream.”
Bester has also delved into everything from commercials to stage performances, including the 2024 Lane Cove Theatre Company’s production of The Little Mermaid at the Pottery Lane Performance Space in Lane Cove.
With all this in mind, when asked what her goal for the next five to ten years is, you could probably guess her answer.
“Oh, big screen, man. Hollywood Walk of Fame. I mean, that’s always been the dream,” An enthusiastic Bester said without missing a beat.
“But I think as I’m getting older, I’m also getting more okay with the fact that as long as I’m in this industry and doing something, that I will be like content with that and happy with it, because it’s just what I love doing.”
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