Aussie at Heart Cast Guide

Hallmark’s “Aussie at Heart” puts two Australian television favorites at the center of a romance built on old professional wounds. Rhiannon Fish plays Samara Hart, a former attorney who has rebuilt herself as an event planner, while Daniel Lissing stars as Nate Lawson, the one-time colleague and rival she still blames for helping destroy her legal career. Their paths cross again in Queensland when Samara is hired to organize a 40th wedding anniversary aboard a luxury yacht and discovers Nate is its captain. What begins as an uncomfortable reunion gradually forces both of them to reconsider what really happened between them years earlier.

Directed by Colin Budds and originally produced under the title “Love on Deck,” the movie also features Lana Golja, Tracie Filmer, Asabi Goodman and Matt Wilson. Hallmark premieres “Aussie at Heart” on August 15, 2026, at 8/7c, with streaming on Hallmark+ beginning the following day.

Rhiannon Fish as Samara Hart

Rhiannon Fish leads the cast as Samara Hart, whose career has already undergone one major reinvention before the story begins. Samara once worked as a lawyer, but a damaging professional episode pushed her away from the courtroom and into event planning. Her latest assignment, an elaborate anniversary celebration in Queensland, is supposed to demonstrate just how successfully she has moved forward. Finding Nate in charge of the yacht immediately complicates that plan.

Fish has become a familiar Hallmark lead, appearing in movies including “When Love Springs,” “A Picture of Her,” “Journey of My Heart” and “The 27-Hour Day.” She also starred with Hunter King in “Nikki & Nora: Sister Sleuths.” Before her Hallmark run, Fish was well known to Australian audiences as April Scott on “Home and Away” and Lisa Jeffries on “Neighbours,” while international viewers may recognize her as Ontari from “The 100.”

Samara gives Fish a character who is more professionally defensive than the average Hallmark heroine. The romance cannot really move forward until Samara separates what she believes Nate did from what actually happened to her legal career. That history gives the central relationship more friction than a simple case of two strangers meeting on vacation.

Daniel Lissing as Nate Lawson

Daniel Lissing plays Nate Lawson, Samara’s former colleague and courtroom rival who is now working as the captain of the yacht hosting the anniversary celebration. Hallmark’s synopsis establishes that Nate and Samara have unresolved history, with their forced collaboration eventually pushing them to confront the past rather than continue avoiding it.

Lissing remains most closely associated with Jack Thornton on Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart,” the role that made him one of the network’s best-known male leads. His other television work includes Conrad De Groot in the Australian legal drama “Crownies,” Lieutenant James King in ABC’s “Last Resort” and Sterling Freeman on “The Rookie.” He has also appeared in “The Cure,” “John Doe: Vigilante” and several other Australian productions.

Casting Lissing as Nate carries a little extra logic beyond his Hallmark history. The Sydney-born actor built his career in Australian television before moving into American productions, and “Aussie at Heart” brings him back to an Australian setting for a Hallmark romance. Nate’s life on the water also puts Lissing far away from the Mountie uniform that many longtime Hallmark viewers still associate with him.

Lana Golja as Liv Stevens

Lana Golja joins the supporting cast as Liv Stevens. Hallmark has concentrated its advance publicity on Samara and Nate, so detailed information about Liv’s relationship to the central couple has not yet been released. Her character name, however, is confirmed in the movie’s official production credits.

Golja is an Australian actress whose previous television credits include “Worst Year of My Life, Again!,” in which she played Nicola Grey, along with appearances in “Wentworth,” “Winners & Losers,” “Upper Middle Bogan” and “House Husbands.” “Aussie at Heart” gives her a supporting role in a production that draws heavily from Australian talent rather than importing an entirely North American ensemble for its Queensland setting.

Related: Aussie at Heart Filming Locations

Tracie Filmer as Nancy

Tracie Filmer portrays Nancy, another character connected to Samara and Nate’s Queensland story. Current cast listings confirm the role but do not provide enough information to confidently describe Nancy as a relative, client or member of the yacht crew. Until Hallmark releases a fuller character breakdown or the movie airs, assigning her a more specific relationship would be speculation.

Filmer has worked across Australian film and television, with credits including “Troppo,” “In Our Blood,” “A Perfect Pairing” and “Young Rock.” That makes her another locally established performer within a cast assembled around Fish and Lissing rather than simply a background player brought in for the Queensland shoot.

Asabi Goodman as Thea

Asabi Goodman plays Thea. Like Nancy and Liv, Thea’s exact place within the anniversary storyline has not been detailed in Hallmark’s public synopsis, though Goodman is confirmed in the movie’s credited ensemble.

Goodman is an American-born Australian actor and singer who built much of her performing career in Brisbane. Before acting professionally, she studied chemical engineering at the University of Southern California and later trained in stage and screen performance in Australia. Her screen work includes “Blackwater” and “Colourful & Impossible,” while her stage career has included major musical productions such as “Hairspray” and “Chicago.”

Her presence continues the movie’s strong Queensland and Australian casting connection, which feels particularly appropriate for a Hallmark story that is actually set and filmed in the country rather than using Australia to impersonate somewhere else.

Matt Wilson as Billy

Matt Wilson rounds out the principal supporting cast as Billy. IMDb’s current credits identify Wilson in the role, although Billy has received little attention in Hallmark’s promotional material so far.

Wilson is best known for playing Aaron Brennan on the long-running Australian soap “Neighbours.” He joined the series in 2015 and eventually became a major member of the Brennan family, remaining closely associated with the character for years. “Aussie at Heart” gives him another romantic-drama credit alongside several actors whose careers have also passed through Australian television.

That Australian connection is one of the more appealing things about the ensemble. Fish, Lissing, Golja, Goodman, Filmer and Wilson bring different television backgrounds into what could otherwise have been a conventional Hallmark destination romance. The yacht and Queensland coastline provide the scenery, but the casting gives “Aussie at Heart” a local character that fits its title.

At the center of it all are Fish and Lissing. Samara and Nate’s romance works from a premise that requires more than immediate attraction because their first task is deciding whether the version of their shared past that each has carried for years is actually true. That makes the supporting anniversary celebration more than an excuse to put two attractive people on a yacht. It gives them somewhere they have to stay long enough to finally have the conversation they avoided the first time.