Ayesha Madon thought it was just an ongoing joke — but it turned out to be true.
She says everyone around her would joke that she had ADHD as a child, but it wasn’t until she was working with a therapist later in life that she was told to get assessed.
“One of the things that led to my low self-esteem was being a person of colour in Australia, and the second one was growing up neurodivergent.”
As a student, Madon would hit periods of hyperfocus and productivity before “sitting down for eight hours and not studying at all”.
“I felt so stupid growing up. I felt so different. Like, ‘What am I not getting that everyone else seems to be getting so easily?’,” she says.
“I felt fully like an alien.”
Once she got diagnosed, her mind began to make more sense, and she’s embraced the new understanding when writing music.
“When I do reach my little hyper-focus zones, it’s life-changing,” she says.
But she’s hesitant to define herself too heavily by ADHD.
“At the end of the day, brains are a spectrum,” she says.
The original Heartbreak High screened in the 1990s and ran for seven seasons. The series has been reimagined for a new generation – it covers gender fluidity, sexuality, police brutality and the role of social media in young Australians’ lives. Source: Supplied / Netflix
Heartbreak High is a ‘reimagining’, not a remake
In late 2022, Madon debuted as Amerie Wadia — the lead role of the Netflix show Heartbreak High; a loose remake of the 1990s high school drama.
The series was a worldwide success — it made the top 10 in 43 countries and spent three weeks in the global top 10, peaking at number five. The remake — or “reimagining” as Ayesha prefers to call it — talks to a new generation and reflects Australia’s cultural diversity. It tackles police brutality, gender fluidity, homosexuality, friendship riffs, and more.
The show won an Emmy and has received praise for its portrayal of living with autism via the character Quinni Gallagher-Jones (played by actor Chloe Hayden, who is autistic). Quinni navigates everything from dating to tricky social situations.
Being the representation she wish she had growing up
Ayesha says her school experience was very different to the lives of the students in Hartley High (the fictional school featured in Heartbreak High). Her school cohort was majority white, and unlike many of the characters, Madon says she didn’t drink, smoke or have sex.
Her parents had emigrated from India and bought a small catering company to make ends meet.
“They built it from the ground up and they didn’t even know how to cook,” she says.
Madon’s parents emigrated from India and purchased a small catering company to put their children through school and extracurricular activities. Credit: Supplied
She’s found playing the role of Amerie has been healing.
“Growing up in a white society – it definitely has an impact on your psyche, and it had quite a big impact on my confidence and how I saw myself in the world,” she says.
“I feel like [my character] Amerie doesn’t have the insecurities that I had growing up. I filtered myself and I monitored myself,” she says.
“She doesn’t have that wounded thing that I think a lot of people of colour in this country have where they feel maybe less than or they have a deficit of some kind.”
“Playing a role that’s nothing like that has been really nice and healing.
Madon is proud that the show doesn’t play into old tropes. Her character also wasn’t written as South Asian, rather she filled the role and the writing adapted.
“To be a leading lady who is so effortlessly South Asian … is just really special. And I think I would’ve loved to have that level of representation growing up.”
Heartbreak High has received praise for its portrayal of Australian teen life, and reflecting thee country’s cultural diversity. Source: Supplied / Lisa Tomasetti/Netflix
Leaving musical theatre but returning to music
Before landing Heartbreak High, Madon previously explored a career in musical theatre, having performed in FanGirls at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre. But she found herself moving away from the industry.
“A reason why I’m not doing music theatre anymore is because I didn’t really see myself [in a lead role] … I remember thinking, if I do this, I will have to be in the ensemble.”
She’s now excited to be releasing music that feels more like her own, and is detached from her character Amerie. In the off-season of Heartbreak High she set up a studio in her grandma’s garage to write. She recently released a single from an upcoming album.
“I’ve been waiting to release music for so long,” she says.
“Music has been a real healing part of my journey.”
Heartbreak High season two launches on Netflix on 11 April.
Tyler Mitchell