Not that her talent hadn't already opened doors in Los Angeles and closer to home. But the former Hunter School of the Performing Arts student, whose family lives in Whitebridge, was suddenly rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in acting at a prestigious awards night in LA. And more importantly, they all knew her name.

Geraldine was one of 18 promising actors in the running for the seventh annual Heath Ledger Scholarship. She was up against tough competition. Some nominees had already appeared in Unbroken, The Water Diviner, Deadline Gallipoli, ANZAC Girls and The Code. And winner Matt Levetts credits include Drown, A Place to Call Home, Devils Playground, Winners & Losers and Bed of Roses.

Actors Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn and Vince Vaughn were among the judges.

Geraldine was nominated for her role as rebellious teen Vizzie in independent film Dysfunktion, a dark comedy about six broke Hollywood wannabes living together in a mansion, forced to rent rooms with strangers. Director David Bianchi describes Dysfunktion as Big Brother meets The Hangover. It is in post-production and has yet to be released.

Since its inception in 2008, the Heath Ledger Scholarship finalists list has become a litmus test for emerging Australian acting talent. The aim is to help actors who have achieved a level of success in Australia to establish themselves as working actors in the United States. Previous recipients of the scholarship are Cody Fern, James Mackay, Anna McGahan, Ryan Corr, Bella Heathcote and Oliver Ackland.

Geraldine is in LA for pilot season. She loves the fast-paced city and is not at all daunted by the cut-throat showbiz world. The bubbly 20-year-old born at John Hunter Hospital to Swiss and Indian parents spoke to the Herald while in Newcastle two days before hopping on a plane.

"Being a finalist for the Heath Ledger Scholarship was a major step forward for me, and completely random," she says.

"I thought I might have been too young, and I didn't have many credits to my name. The best thing about it, though, was that it connected me to the Australian acting community a lot more, because until then I didn't have a lot to do with it. It has become an amazing networking opportunity for me."

Geraldine has a younger sister, Indira. Her father, Surjeh, is a doctor and her mother, Anja Viswanathan-Raith, is an actor who has appeared in television shows such as My Place and Catching Milat. Her grandfather Bernhard Raith is a Swiss filmmaker.

Geraldine's flair for the dramatic was discovered early: "I did my first audition when I was five and I was just very talkative and they were like 'yep! you can do drama'."

She enrolled in kindergarten at Hunter School of the Performing Arts in Broadmeadow and remained at the school until she graduated from year 12 in 2013 (the school now only accepts students from year 3 onwards). After receiving, in her words, a "pretty solid ATAR", she chose to spend a gap year in LA and while there was shortlisted for a lead role in a Disney film. (By "pretty solid" she actually means a score in the 90s and topping the school in English and drama.)

"I went there to suss out the scene and I was auditioning and doing classes and I fell in love with it completely. It became my mission to keep going back to LA and trying to make it," Geraldine says.

Her love affair with LA began when, at the age of 15, she travelled there on a family holiday.

"Mum had a friend of a friend who meets with you and tells you if you have potential. Apparently I did. We went to another meeting and from there I got an agent and a manager," she explains.

"That was the turning point for me. I had always felt, as a girl with darker skin, that there wouldn't be many opportunities for me in LA. I was the only kid with dark skin at my school and I didn't think I could ever get a lead role because I wasn't the right fit.

"So when that opportunity came up in LA I was like 'oh, this could actually happen'."

And the wheels are already in motion. Geraldine has just finished her first feature film. Director Neil Triffett's Emo The Musical is due to be released in cinemas this August.

"Up until now I've done short films that will be doing the festival circuit this year - they haven't been released yet and can only be put online once they've been submitted," Geraldine says.

"But Emo The Musical is definitely my biggest to date. I met a lot of people on set who took on a mentoring role and it was a nice confidence boost - which is what a lot of opportunities are, really, just a little nudge in the right direction."

Other film credits to her name include Moose, Big Bad World, Happy Hours, God, Vertical Horizon, The Prince, The Fairies, The Stranger and, of course, Dysfunktion.

This is Geraldine's first pilot season in LA, where aspiring actors attend audition after audition in front of time-pressed television casting agents. Even if an actor scores a role, the program itself might not make it through to a network. It's an unsympathetic, sometimes ruthless, process but it's par for the course for actors seeking a break.

"I have an amazing manager in LA who is setting up auditions so I'm just preparing myself for it, because apparently pilot season is pretty full on," Geraldine says.

"Acting itself is so much fun, and I love other actors, and it's so much fun to create and tell stories - but you are being judged every day and it can be tough.

"Between auditions I am planning to do some improvisation courses and I'll try to get into stand-up comedy. Comedy and TV have always been the dream for me. I'm totally inspired by people like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and I would love to be on an amazing sitcom.

"But it's going to be an experience no matter how it ends."