Charlotte King (Erika Heynatz)

[Perdita]

Home and Away has cast Australian model and actress Erika Heynatz as a school teacher.

Heynatz told The Daily Telegraph that family members had been giving her tips about the role.

Erika Heynatz
© Getty Images

"I am filming my first scene next week and I will be playing a school teacher," she said. "My mum is a teacher and my mother-in-law is a school teacher and a principal, so with any luck they can give me some tips."

The actress added that despite her nerves, she is looking forward to taking on the role.

"Just like with any new job or new environment, there are always some nerves," she said. "But ultimately, I am really thrilled. It feels like the perfect timing, the perfect role and the character is going to be a lot of fun to play."

She went on to say that she has no current plans to break into Hollywood, saying that she plans to take things "one step at a time".

"For me, it feels like a huge achievement to have been given this opportunity," she said. "My main goal is to flourish in this role and have the best experience ever, and whatever happens after that, you can't control that."

Heynatz is known for hosting Australia's Next Top Model, The Hot House and It Takes Two. She has also worked on musicals including Legally Blonde and Australian Rocky Horror Show.

[Pantherboy]

Article in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph today (Sunday June 21):

Erika Heynatz reveals how she will shake up Summer Bay


IT has taken Erika Heynatz her whole to career to find a place to call home.

Home and Away, that is, into which the 40-year-old strides this week as new biology teacher Charlotte King.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Home and Away if it was a simple entry. Charlotte is popular with students and is looking for a fresh start, but is hiding a secret history which will divide one of Summer Bay’s favourite couples.

Suffice to say there’s intrigue, if not trouble brewing, and Charlotte’s arrival isn’t low key.

“There’s no slinking into the show in the background — she definitely makes an entrance,” Heynatz says.

And that’s just the way Heynatz, who accepted the gig after two years touring with the Australian Rocky Horror Show as the Usherette and Magenta, likes it.

Home and Away is Heynatz’s first TV drama series gig, and she is relishing the change of pace.

She’s been shooting since January, so this week’s airing of those first episodes has been a strange wait for an actor more accustomed to instant audience response to her work.

“I had been doing musical theatre, where you get that instant gratification from an audience, so this is so different,” Heynatz, who might be new to Home and Away but not to television, says.

“Part of me feels like it’s a great thing not to be going straight on screen, because if you were in any way critical of yourself that could be a bad thing. Instead for six months I’ve just been immersing myself in it and learning as I go.”

As well as modelling, Heynatz’s bulging CV also includes former host of Australia’s Next Top Model, a string of film and TV credits and winning singing reality series It Takes Two alongside opera singer David Hobson. She went on to host that show, then found musical theatre success in Legally Blonde before Rocky Horror.

As a woman accustomed to life on the move, the role of Charlotte had instant appeal.

“I related to her initially in that she is looking for a fresh start,” Heynatz says.

“When I grew up my dad was in the Navy and we travelled around a lot and we did a lot of different schools I can really relate to that feeling of being the new kid in town.

“That feeling of having to work really hard to ingratiate yourself with a whole new group of people and get their trust. And even just professionally within the entertainment industry the roles change all the time.

“You do a photo shoot one day, you do a musical another, it’s a transient life, you are constantly trying to find your feet and to forge your relationships and it can be really tricky to find friends and find your place.”

She may have found her place in Summer Bay, but Heynatz confesses there’s one more place she’d really like to feel at home — in the surf.

“My friends always make fun of me. I love surfing but my talent does not match my enthusiasm,” she laughs.

“My husband will be checking the swell and saying ‘it’s great, it’s massive, it’s six foot over there’ and I’m the opposite. If I check the surf report and it’s one-foot rollers I’m texting girlfriends saying ‘the surf is perfect’.”

Earlier this year she suffered nasty grazes after being well and truly pounded out on her board, and she now wears the humiliation, and the nickname it earned her, as a badge of pride.

“My husband was watching from the sand and when I came out there was blood gushing out of some graze and he said ‘it’s all about how you tell it and you can tell people you got into a barrel and you got a fin chop’,” she laughs.

“So now they laugh and call me Fin Chop. They say ‘get out there Fin Chop, give it a go.



SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT! The rumours seem to be that Charlotte is Zac's ex, & they have a (now teenage) son together that Zac doesn't know about. So I assume that this is the "secret history which will divide one of Summer Bay's favourite couples". More drama for Zac & Leah!! I understand the sons name is Hunter & he will also be arriving soon in the Bay. I believe he was the young guy who appeared on stage with the cast (along with Erika Heynatz/Charlotte) at the TV Week Logie Awards & can be seen in some of the photos from those awards.

[lizann]

is she the teacher matt sleeps with

[Dazzle]

is she the teacher matt sleeps with

She is

[tammyy2j]

Zac has an ex wife

[Perdita]

Home and Away's Erika Heynatz has revealed she is pregnant with her first child - saying she's "bursting with excitement".

Heynatz hasn't been seen on UK screens yet but she has joined the soap as Summer Bay High's new biology teacher Charlotte King.

She made the announcement with a post on Instagram:

A caption with the picture of a sonogram in a POP image read: "Bursting with excitement to share that a beautiful little Sagittarius baby is coming our way!!

"Due to pop out in December unless he/she has other plans. #wearefamily"

Heynatz was cast as new character Charlotte in January but hasn't appeared on the series' broadcasts in the UK yet.

[lellygurl]

**Spoiler alert** Has anyone seen the new clip/advert on tv with Ms King saying she wants Zac back and you never forget your 1st love and that Leah is the only thing standing in the way? It seems "being loopy" runs in the family, considering Hunter's not "all there"... LOL Thoughts?

[Pantherboy]

**Spoiler alert** Has anyone seen the new clip/advert on tv with Ms King saying she wants Zac back and you never forget your 1st love and that Leah is the only thing standing in the way? It seems "being loopy" runs in the family, considering Hunter's not "all there"... LOL Thoughts?

Yes, lelygurl, interesting isn't it! There has also been the previous advert where it said Zac etc wil be caught in "Charlotte's web". In this new one, after she says Leah is the only thing standing in her way, she then says "She has got to go!". Given the big rumour about Denny being murdered, & one of the suggestions being that Charlotte kills her because she finds out Hunter started the house fire, I suppose an alternative possibility could now be that she is actually after Leah & somehow Denny gets involved. All the spoilers for the next couple of weeks seem to indicate the tension between Leah & Zac could lead to Zac moving out, at least for a while. Maybe, Charlotte will think she has finally got him back, but then Zac & Leah work things out/reunite which sends Charlotte on the warpath!! Just a thought - any other theories?

[lellygurl]

Yes, lelygurl, interesting isn't it! There has also been the previous advert where it said Zac etc wil be caught in "Charlotte's web". In this new one, after she says Leah is the only thing standing in her way, she then says "She has got to go!". Given the big rumour about Denny being murdered, & one of the suggestions being that Charlotte kills her because she finds out Hunter started the house fire, I suppose an alternative possibility could now be that she is actually after Leah & somehow Denny gets involved. All the spoilers for the next couple of weeks seem to indicate the tension between Leah & Zac could lead to Zac moving out, at least for a while. Maybe, Charlotte will think she has finally got him back, but then Zac & Leah work things out/reunite which sends Charlotte on the warpath!! Just a thought - any other theories?

I was thinking maybe Hunter is not really Zacs and maybe she's come up with this story to get Zac back..? But I dunno. Casting wise, wouldn't you cast someone who looked like baby daddy? Hunter doesn't look like Zac... Just a thought. ..

[lellygurl]

Yes, lelygurl, interesting isn't it! There has also been the previous advert where it said Zac etc wil be caught in "Charlotte's web". In this new one, after she says Leah is the only thing standing in her way, she then says "She has got to go!". Given the big rumour about Denny being murdered, & one of the suggestions being that Charlotte kills her because she finds out Hunter started the house fire, I suppose an alternative possibility could now be that she is actually after Leah & somehow Denny gets involved. All the spoilers for the next couple of weeks seem to indicate the tension between Leah & Zac could lead to Zac moving out, at least for a while. Maybe, Charlotte will think she has finally got him back, but then Zac & Leah work things out/reunite which sends Charlotte on the warpath!! Just a thought - any other theories?

I was thinking maybe Hunter is not really Zacs and maybe she's come up with this story to get Zac back..? But I dunno. Casting wise, wouldn't you cast someone who looked like baby daddy? Hunter doesn't look like Zac... Just a thought. ..