Spud's Crazy 8 named

Spud - Troye Sivan
Fourteen-year-old Troye Sivan comes from South Africa but lives in Perth, Australia. Sivan's burgeoning musical career has already seen him perform at many of Perth's most important venues, as well as professional performances that span several continents.

Gecko - Jamie Royal

Grade 9 Glenwood High pupil Jamie Royal has extensive theatre experience, but Spud is his first feature film. Royal already has an impressive CV with roles in Winnie The Pooh, Aladdin, Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan amongst others, at the Elizabeth Sneddon and Playhouse theatres in Durban.

Rambo - Sven Ruygrok

Eighteen-year-old Sven Ruygrok graduated from Beaulieu College in 2009 with two distinctions - one of them in his favourite subject: drama. His abilities were recently acknowledged by the judges in the ACT/Dalro Performing Arts Scholarship last year, where he was one of the six national finalists.

Mad Dog - Josh Goddard

All-action Josh Goddard is a Grade 11 student at Michaelhouse, where he is an active sportsman who plays rugby and water polo and participates in athletics. He auditioned for Spud for fun and acted as crazily as he possibly could - which clearly went down well as he won the role of madcap Mad Dog hands down.

Vern - Tom Burne

First-time actor Tom Burne is a 15-year-old student at Michaelhouse, where he has half colours for Academics. Burne only auditioned for the film at the prompting of his drama teacher and couldn't be happier to have landed the role of misfit Vern.

Simon - Byron Langley

A student at Glenwood Boys' High in Durban, Langley is a newcomer to acting, having only previously performed in primary school plays. He auditioned for Spud on the advice of his school drama teacher and has subsequently fallen in love with acting, a career he can see himself pursuing in the future.

Boggo - Travis Hornsby

Hornsby was born in Port Elizabeth but currently lives in Edenvale, Gauteng and attends St John's College. He was top of his class academically from Grade 1 to 7 and received the Dux Scholae Award in 2009. An Eisteddfod veteran, he received awards for poetry, poetry writing, mime and dramatized prose.

Fatty - Blessing Xaba

Blessing Xaba comes from Berea in Durban and is a Grade 11 student at DHS. He has already performed in a number of professional theatre productions including Annie, School of Rock and Big River at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

Producers Ross Garland and Brad Logan are happy to see filming finally get underway. “It's great to see the years of planning finally being realised with a full cast and crew on set at Michaelhouse,” said Logan. “We're delighted to see a South African film being produced in the country with a host of local actors, put together by a local crew and funded by South African investors.” Garland has a special word of praise for the cast. “We cast the net far and wide to find talented actors to bring John van de Ruit's characters to light and are delighted with the superb cast we've put together, and we're confident they're going to do a fantastic job.”