JUST three years after she trod the boards at Perth Modern School, Katherine Langford is the latest in a growing list of young WA talent taking Hollywood by storm.

The 20-year-old actor is back in Perth after six months filming the Selena Gomez-produced Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which airs in the US in March. Directed by Tom McCarthy, who won an Oscar for Spotlight, Langford plays a school student who commits suicide. A few weeks later it is discovered she had sent her schoolmates tapes explaining their part in her death.

Ahead of what looks set to be her breakthrough year, with filming of her first feature film to start in the US in March, Langford is today named as a face to watch in STM’s 2017 Hot List.

After graduating from Perth Modern and taking various acting classes and workshops the following year, the rising star began sending out audition tapes for roles in international TV shows.

Incredibly, she scored the spot on 13 Reasons Why soon after being pipped for a part in a major British series on the young William Shakespeare by another Perth product, PLC graduate Olivia DeJonge.

The WA talent boom has also seen 24-year-old Perth actor Devon Terrell recently portray outgoing US President Barack Obama in Netflix’s Barry, while former Subiaco Primary School pupil Angourie Rice will this year star opposite Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled.

“I was in Perth when I ended up getting the call about 13 Reasons Why early last year,” Langford says of the highly-anticipated series, based on an award-winning young adult novel by Jay Asher.

Does Langford now feel that the bright lights of Los Angeles might become a permanent lure?

“To be honest, there’s no place like home,” she says.