Twelve-year-old Xander McGuire is Neighbours’ latest recruit, joining the popular series in a guest role as Charlie Hoyland, the son of one of the show’s most iconic characters Steph Scully played by Carla Bonner, who coincidentally shares the same Christian name as Xander’s real life mother.

Charlie Hoyland was introduced to the series in 2006 and has been played by two other young performers at different stages of the character’s development.

The rising star developed an interest in acting while performing in his school’s musical that lead to a screen test for the daily soap and has received plenty of encouragement from his father, television and radio identity Eddie McGuire.

“It’s an amazing first job in the industry, Neighbours has been such a big part of Australian television and has launched so many careers.  I’m really excited,” said Xander who starts filming this week.

In the meantime, Xander has researched his on-screen mother and made some intriguing discoveries; “Married, step-children, battled cancer, had a son which is me, stabbed, sent to prison for manslaughter, followed up by kidnapping – and I thought I had an interesting family in real life,”

Neighbours Series Producer, Jason Herbison said about the show’s newest addition; “I’m thrilled to have Xander playing a character that already has a significant history with the show and I’ve no doubt he’ll do a sterling job continuing the character’s story,”

Xander will debut on-air in early 2016.