Home and Away Mandy McElhinney’s life from quitting acting to role she can’t escape

Home and Away’s mysterious newcomer Margot is played by well-known Aussie star Mandy McElhinney and the famous actress has an exciting life away from the Channel 5 soap

Margot Dafoe, the newest member of the cast of Home and Away, travelled to Summer Bay on Tuesday, July 11, in search of her son, Andrew.

Margot, portrayed by 52-year-old Australian actress Mandy McElhinney, was thrilled to be reunited with the youngster she insisted was her son while posing as Esther.

The unhappy kid made the decision to move in with his mother when Esther joined Justin, Leah, and Andrew for dinner with Andrew. He bade his foster family and Summer Bay a sad farewell.

Cash Newman learned on Monday (July 17) that Esther was actually Margot Dafoe, the founder of the infamous cult Vita Nova.

The Daily Star has looked at the off-screen life of well-known actress Mandy as soap opera viewers wait for Margot to reveal who she really is in upcoming episodes.

The role she can’t escape

Prior to joining the Home and Away cast, Mandy was a seasoned actress.

She was a featured in several insurance commercials that aired in 2012, which is probably how Australian fans know her best.

In the well-liked AAMI advertisements, Mandy played Rhonda and actor Kadek Mahardika played Ketut.

In the ads, which at initially promoted AAMI’s safe driver insurance, Rhonda meets her younger boyfriend while on vacation in Bali, and their summer romance develops into a committed union.

The soap star acknowledged that even though the well-known advertisements first aired more than ten years ago, they continue to play a significant role in Australian popular culture and help people remember her.

Some people instantly remember me, and the dialogue is always really humorous, she said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. People remember that relationship and time with great affection.

“There was something incredibly sweet about her, her lack of pretence, her open-heartedness, and her desire for love,” the Channel 5 personality continued.

She embodied what, in my opinion, people desire to happen to decent people: wonderful things.

Lengthy career

Kickstarting her career as a social worker in Aussie children’s television series Ship to Shore in 1994, Mandy is known for appearing in numerous Australian TV series and films and has enjoyed mass success over the past three decades.

From 2003 until 2006, she starred in sketch comedy series Comedy Inc which featured original skits, impersonations and irreverent parodies of other programmes and films.

Mandy received the role of Nene King in the 2013 television miniseries Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, which she later declared to be her favourite.

“I liked portraying Nene King,” the actress gushed. “There was something really liberating about her energy, her straightforward honesty, and her shameless ambition, which is unusual, generally, for female roles.

“Of course, all of the characters I’ve played have shaped who I am as a person,” the actor continued, “but the collaborators and the experiences we had creating together are unforgettable.”

Mandy was cast as Matron Frances Bolton in the drama series Love Child, which aired from 2014 to 2017 across four seasons. In the 2015 television movie The House of Hancock, she played Gina Rinehart opposite Hollywood A-lister Sam Neil. The television personality frequently appears in theatre performances; in 2022, she will play Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie by Sydney Theatre Company.

Almost quit acting

After filming season one of psychological mystery series Wakefield in 2021, Mandy told TV week that she almost gave up on acting.

“A lot of us thought it was going to go again [for season two] but they couldn’t bring it back unfortunately,” she explained to the publication.

“A lot of my colleagues have left the industry, I was pretty close to doing that myself.”

The actress admitted that her sister Hayley McElhinney “saved her” by co-writing and starring in the play Dirty Birds with her.

“This project with Hayley saved me in a way because we could decide what stories we wanted to tell,” the woman concluded.

“I have absolutely no control over my career. I can only be thankful for the chances that present themselves.

Marriage

Mandy and Carlo D’ora met in 2015 while he was on vacation in Sydney thanks to a mutual acquaintance.

She explained how they met by coincidence to Women’s Weekly: “My friends provide an introduction service for males looking for love, specifically same-sex partners.

They weren’t expecting us to click the way we did, but we did. We clicked right away.

Then, Italian-born Carlo gave up his writing and producing jobs in Italy and relocated to Sydney to be with Mandy.

The pair exchanged vows in a chapel perched on a Sicilian cliff in December 2017.

The old Castello San Marco castle hosted an Italian-style banquet after their wedding.

While Carlo wore a suit by Dolce & Gabbana, the theatre actress looked lovely in a white dress by Australian designer Leah da Gloria.

Mandy exclaimed to Women’s Weekly in awe at her jaw-dropping dress, “I felt like I was wearing a work of art, so completely out of myself and yet so comfortable. I simply felt divine there, and I could dance as well.