In the film industry it's not always what you know, but who, that gets you the job. Just ask Natasha Loring.
No, it wasn't her dad, Richard, who hooked her up, but someone who works with him.
Jeanette du Toit's uncle was casting for the film Hitchhiker and she suggested that Samantha and Natasha Loring might be interested.
They auditioned and got the parts and didn't make up the story. Older sister Samantha plays a student in Natasha's drama class, who gets along very well with her friend's boyfriend.
"It was crazy that we both got the parts. Especially when all the extras heard that she was my sister. They thought it was quite weird," laughed Natasha.
The role of love interest, Julie, was serendipitous casting for Natasha's debut film role. She auditioned for the role just as she finished her matric and filming started at the beginning of April 2006, as Natasha started her first year as a drama student at AFDA.
The character leaves home to study drama in Cape Town too.
"In some ways she's a little bit of a spoilt brat, but I've never had the problems with my parents not agreeing on someone I want to be with - which Julie has a big problem with," explained Natasha (20).
"She's leaving school to study something away from home. She's going to gain independence, find her place in the world and find out what she really wants to do and I think at this time of my life that's exactly what I wanted to do."
She spent two months working on the Hitchhiker set, travelling and filming around the country. They shot in Blaauwberg ("It was a little bit chilly in the sea"), Johannesburg and (the best bit for her) in Mala Mala.
"It was incredible, sitting in the game lodge, getting to see all the animals and relaxing and I thought 'this is what I want to do'."
While she's been around actors and theatrical productions all her life she found her first foray into the world of film slightly daunting.
"I knew nothing, really, about film, so I basically just had to draw on common knowledge and sense. I was thrown into the film and I thought 'well, I know I'm not supposed to look into the camera'.
"It was really great working with all the other people, they gave me good advice."
Though she managed to get some time off AFDA, she still had to keep up with assignments and catch up on lectures and, once back at school, it was with a professional film shoot under her belt.
"I felt like I had jumped ahead. Doing a film, it's basically doing a degree in itself. You learn everything you need to about film, without the theory behind it."
But she does admit being back at AFDA had the advantage of being with her peers and not feeling like the complete newbie on the block.
Though, given her background, she has an advantage over many of her fellow students.
Natasha thinks of the theatre as her second home, having sat in on auditions, through rehearsals and even attending backstage meetings all her life.
"It was incredible to see a stage performance grow right from the beginning all the way to the end. Subliminally learning all those lessons along the way really helped."
Neither parents have actively encouraged or discouraged her from choosing acting as a career, but she seemed amused that her father is "really excited" that both his daughters have chosen the performance industry.
"It's quite tricky when people say: 'Oh, I know your father very well,' then you know there's an expectation and you have to try and meet it. But it's a challenge, and it's definitely helped me, and I don't think I could ever turn my back on having a name like that, because it's taught me everything I know."
Acting is what Natasha always wanted do and she's always known she would end up in the entertainment industry, whether putting on an event, or starring in it.
"It's what drives me, it's my passion and it's what I know and what excites me. It's the feeling that it gives me, the feeling of freedom that I can be anyone and do anything."