New Zealand-born, Australian-raised actor Reef Ireland will join the cast of TV3’s hit Westside as the notorious Wolfgang West, the character previously brought to life by Grant Bowler.
Reef confesses he’s a huge admirer of the original Outrageous Fortune series, so scoring the part of Wolf was a dream come true.
“I was really, really keen on this part because I was a huge fan of the original series. I wouldn’t have ever thought that one day I’d be doing the prequel to Outrageous Fortune – especially playing a great part like Wolf,” he said in a statement.
The 22-year-old actor is already a familiar face for Kiwi audiences thanks to his previous roles on Wentworth and Puberty Blues, and he recently shot a feature film titled Downriver.
To prepare for his new role as Wolfgang West, Reef went straight to the source, visiting Grant at his home to have a chat about the iconic character.
“I went and visited Grant at his place in Venice Beach. We talked about the character and he was really helpful and totally up for anything I wanted to ask him,” Reef says.
“He had plenty of stuff to tell me – he was great.”
Season two of Westside is being funded by New Zealand on Air and will screen on TV3 next year.