ACTOR FILMMAKER TEACHER
About Paul Moore
Australian screen actor, filmmaker, acting coach and founder of Moore Acting Instinct in Geelong.
The person and the process
The work behind the work
I’m Paul Moore. My work sits where acting, filmmaking and teaching meet.
Audiences may know me as Wes Fitzpatrick in Winners & Losers or Shaun in Rostered On. Behind the camera, I have worked as an executive producer, creator, writer, editor and producer. In 2015, I founded Moore Acting Instinct in Geelong to help actors build practical screen skills, prepare with purpose and become more confident under pressure.
Those roles all return me to the same question: what allows a person to remain present, truthful and courageous when the pressure rises?
I have spent much of my life exploring that question—not only as a performer, but as someone who once found fear physically overwhelming. The answer, for me, has never been talent alone. It is the quality of the preparation, the willingness to stay curious and the work you put in when nobody else is watching.
Rehearse smarter. Act braver.
The turning point
From panic to purpose
I did not begin acting with a grand artistic plan. I was sixteen when a friend appeared in a television commercial and suddenly received the kind of attention every teenager notices. At first, acting looked like a way to be seen.
What began for the wrong reason became a lifelong curiosity about people: why we behave as we do, why pressure changes us, and why one person can feel free in a moment that makes another person freeze.
That question became personal. After stumbling while reading aloud at school and hearing the class laugh, I began experiencing severe panic attacks. Embarrassment stopped being a passing feeling; my body treated it as a threat. I could sweat until my eyes stung and then become anxious that people would notice I was anxious. The fear of the reaction became as powerful as the reaction itself.
Years later, I walked into the audition for Wes Fitzpatrick in Winners & Losers knowing that panic might arrive. Instead of trying to bargain with it, conceal it or wait until I felt fearless, I decided to let it come if it was coming—and do the work anyway.
I got the role. More importantly, I learned that fear becomes more powerful when your life is organised around avoiding it.
That experience still shapes how I act and teach. Confidence is not a personality type and it is not something you must possess before you begin. It can be built through preparation, repeated experience and the courage to remain available when the outcome matters. Fear does not have to disappear before useful work can happen.
Actor and filmmaker
Learning the work on screen
Each project taught me something different about preparation, collaboration and creating opportunities instead of waiting for perfect conditions.
Winners & Losers
Playing Wes Fitzpatrick gave me a sustained view of how professional television is made. I watched large departments solve problems together under pressure, and I learned from experienced performers who understood timing, discipline, generosity and the importance of serving the story rather than protecting an ego.
It taught me that the most relaxed work on screen is often supported by serious preparation away from it. A set moves quickly. When the camera turns towards you, knowing how to listen, adjust and remain present matters as much as anything you planned beforehand.
Explore the Winners & Losers gallery
Rostered On
Rostered On taught me something different: actors and filmmakers do not always have to wait for permission.
The series began as a grassroots production created and directed by Ryan Chamley. It was made with limited resources and a team willing to solve the next practical problem in front of them. I played the lead role of Shaun and served as an executive producer. What started locally later reached a much wider audience through Netflix and 7mate.
That journey changed my idea of what was possible. Original work does not need to begin with perfect conditions. It needs a clear point of view, people who are prepared to contribute and enough persistence to keep improving the result.
Discover the story of Rostered On
Stashamo High
That independent instinct continued with Stashamo High, a 90-minute feature film directed by Jackson Ezard. I created the project and worked as its writer, editor and producer.
Building a feature demanded endurance. It brought together storytelling, performance, production decisions, problem-solving and the responsibility of carrying an idea beyond its exciting beginning. It also created practical screen experience for performers.
Creating original projects has made me a better actor and a more useful teacher. When you understand what every department is trying to achieve, you arrive on set with greater awareness. You stop seeing a performance as an isolated event and begin seeing it as one part of a much larger act of collaboration.
Explore Paul’s productions
Moore Acting Instinct
Teaching the actor, not just the scene
My path into teaching was not separate from acting. It grew from the same fascination with behaviour, confidence and what happens to people when they feel watched.
I studied Teacher Education at Deakin University, Class of 2004. My studies included education, drama, media studies, communication and theatre studios, while my activities included Drama & Performing Arts, Media Production, Acting Coaching and Student Engagement Programs. That educational foundation gave me a way to think more clearly about how people learn—not simply what information a teacher wants to deliver.
My early teaching work included Moore Grace Acting Studios. In 2015, I founded Moore Acting Instinct to develop a more focused, camera-based approach shaped by my experience as an actor, filmmaker and educator.
The work is practical. We examine the script, the circumstances of the scene and the behaviour underneath the words. Actors rehearse actively, work on camera, review what is actually happening and learn how to make an adjustment without losing spontaneity. The goal is not to manufacture one polished scene for a class. It is to build a repeatable process that can travel into an audition, rehearsal room or professional set.
Every actor learns differently. Some need a clearer structure. Some need to take greater risks. Others need permission to stop controlling every moment. Good teaching should recognise those differences. I use humour, direct feedback and repeated practice to help actors become more specific without becoming trapped in self-consciousness.
Preparation should free instinct, not smother it.
Geelong, Victoria
Geelong is the base, not the boundary
Geelong is where I live, teach and develop much of my original work. It offers a close creative community while remaining connected to Melbourne and the wider Australian screen industry.
I want performers in this region to have more than somewhere to attend a class. I want them to encounter professional expectations, do meaningful work in front of a camera and see that ambitious projects can begin here. That does not mean making exaggerated claims about what Geelong already is. It means contributing to what it can become: a stronger home for screen stories, working performers and the crews who bring those stories to life.
The location matters, but the standard of the work matters more. Geelong is my base; curiosity, collaboration and useful preparation are the things that allow the work to travel.
The next chapter
What I am building now
My current work brings actor training, learning, technology and independent production together.
Through Moore Acting Instinct, I continue to develop practical training for screen actors, including work on confidence, preparation, truthful behaviour and line learning. I am also preparing to launch NeuroMemory, a course designed to give actors a more active and reliable process for learning lines, so recall supports the performance instead of consuming it.
I am interested in how thoughtfully designed rehearsal tools can give actors more useful practice between classes. Technology should support imagination, listening and human connection—not replace them. The test for any new tool is straightforward: does it help the actor arrive better prepared and become more available to the person in front of them?
The individual projects will change. The purpose will not: do the work, make it useful and help other people become braver in theirs.
The principles behind the practice
What I believe
Confidence is trained
Nerves are not proof that you are incapable. Confidence grows when preparation becomes reliable and experience teaches you that discomfort can be survived.
Preparation should create freedom
Knowing the words is only the beginning. An actor must understand what is happening, listen properly and remain responsive. Rehearsal should make room for truthful behaviour when the camera turns on.
Create as well as wait
Auditioning is part of an actor’s life, but it does not have to be the limit of it. Writing, producing and collaborating can build skill, relationships and opportunity. Original work teaches lessons that waiting never will.
Keep exploring
Explore the work
Actors Insights
Practical writing about screen acting, rehearsal, confidence, performance and the realities of building a sustainable creative practice.
Explore Actors Insights Film and televisionProductions
Explore original screen projects and selected production work, including Rostered On and Stashamo High.
View Productions Interviews and coverageMedia and press
Read interviews, profiles, reviews and coverage of my acting, teaching and independent productions.
View Media and Press Behind the scenesPhoto gallery
Browse screen stills, production images, teaching photographs and moments from my work in Geelong and beyond.
Open the Photo GalleryMoore Acting Instinct
Ready to do the work?
Whether you are preparing for your first on-camera class, returning to acting after time away or looking for a more reliable way to work under pressure, you do not need to wait until you feel completely ready.
Explore acting classes, courses and coaching through Moore Acting Instinct and find the training that fits where you are now.
For media, casting and collaborators
Professional biography
Paul Moore is an Australian screen actor, filmmaker, acting coach and educator based in Geelong, Victoria. He is known for playing Wes Fitzpatrick in Winners & Losers and for starring as Shaun and serving as an executive producer on Rostered On. Paul is also the creator, writer, editor and producer of the 90-minute feature film Stashamo High, directed by Jackson Ezard. He studied Teacher Education at Deakin University, Class of 2004, and founded Moore Acting Instinct in 2015. His work spans screen performance, independent production, actor education and the development of practical training that helps actors prepare with purpose and perform with greater confidence.