For Rafael Alessandro’s first regular screen role, he plays Masou Fallaize in the new series The Lady Grace Mysteries, which premiered on CBBC and BBC iPlayer earlier this year. In the screen adaptation of the novels by Patricia Finney, Sara Volger and Jan Burchett, Rafael works alongside Evie Coles and Carys John as Masou’s best friends Lady Grace Cavendish and Ellie Bunting, and Rebecca Scott as Queen Elizabeth I. Last year, Rafael had a guest role in an episode of German series Bettys Diagnose as Lars Paffen and had his TV debut as guest character Moritz Münzer in German courtroom drama Für alle Fälle Familie, and he graduated in 2024 from Internationale Akademie für Filmschauspiel (IAF). We recently caught up with Rafael about playing Masou Fallaize in the CBBC series The Lady Grace Mysteries, his guest roles in Bettys Diagnose and Für alle Fälle Familie and graduating from IAF in 2024.

Can you tell us about the new CBBC series The Lady Grace Mysteries and your character Masou Fallaize, and who do you think the show will appeal to?

The Lady Grace Mysteries is an exciting new show that tells the story of a brave lady-in-waiting, Grace, solving mysteries at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

My character, Masou, is one of Grace’s two best friends helping her in this pursuit. Masou is very creative and light-hearted, and he reminds Grace that life is not all that serious and that some rules exist to be broken.

I think this show will appeal to everyone who enjoys drama, comedy, and a little bit of romance.

How is the experience working on a series set in the Elizabethan era, and how was it seeing the costumes, set and props for the first time?

It is a dream come true! Working on period pieces was one of the reasons I wanted to become an actor in the first place. With the love and attention to detail that our wonderful set, prop and costume departments put into their work, it was not difficult at all to immerse myself in this era.

What is Masou like to play, and what was it like developing the character throughout the series?

Masou is a very multi-layered person. He is ambitious and caring, but also very extravagant. Coming up with his physicality was the most challenging for me. While exploring that, I let myself get inspired by the movement of male peacocks.

On an emotional level, throughout the show, he is forced to learn how to deal with disappointment, but he hides a lot of this behind his positive demeanour. Keeping the balance here was most important to me.

What did you enjoy most about filming alongside your fellow The Lady Grace Mysteries cast members, which include Evie Coles and Carys John as Masou’s best friends Lady Grace Cavendish and Ellie Bunting, and Rebecca Scott as Queen Elizabeth I?

I enjoyed how effortlessly we all got along, but mostly I appreciated the lessons I learned from each of my cast members by just watching them work. At the end of the shoot, I was able to identify at least one trait in each of them that I would want to adopt into my own art or professional life.

With the series being an adaptation of the children’s detective fiction novels by Patricia Finney, Sara Volger and Jan Burchett, how was it bringing the story and character to the screen and how did you prepare for taking on the role?

It actually created some pressure for me! Playing a character that does not yet exist comes with the luxury of some freedom in their interpretation. But the fact that the book series has been out for years means that there is already an established fanbase that has a clear image in their head when they read the name Masou. Naturally, I wanted to do it justice.

So, besides reading the books, I read every fan forum that I could get my hands on in order to find out what the audience considers most important about the character and what they would love to see in him.

How did you feel finding out you’d booked the character as your first regular on-screen role, and what do you feel you learnt from filming Series 1?

I cried. I had always specifically wanted to play a court jester in medieval Europe! So much so that I chose to play one in one of my graduation short films. To have booked a part so incredibly similar to that only a few months after graduating felt way too good to be true. I did not believe my agent when she told me.

From filming, I have learned that the work on a character is never finished. Until the very last slate, there was always more I could find out about Masou and how to portray him.

Do you have any favourite memories from playing Masou so far that you can share, and how has it been seeing the response to The Lady Grace Mysteries now it has premiered on CBBC and BBC iPlayer?

The jam tarts the trio eat in the first episode were absolutely delicious! But for real, the most beautiful moment was realising that working at the court of Elizabeth I was going to be my reality for the next two months. Nothing in life is certain, so I didn’t want to waste any moment taking this for granted.

Seeing such a positive response from the audience feels incredibly rewarding.

Last year, you played Lars Paffen in an episode of the German series Bettys Diagnose; what was it like having a guest role in the show and can you tell us about your episode?

It was very exciting for me, as I grew up watching medical dramas which always had a special place in my heart.

In the episode Apfel im Schlafrock, the character I play, Lars, suffers from a mysterious condition that makes him sleep for the majority of the day, to the point that it becomes dangerous for him.

It goes without saying that my biggest struggle working on Bettys Diagnose was to not actually fall asleep on set!

How was it making your TV debut in the German courtroom drama Für alle Fälle Familie as guest character Moritz Münzer?

I was very nervous. While I had been prepared for this at drama school, which I had only finished a month prior, I still worried that I wouldn’t know where to be and what to do when the cameras were not rolling. But, similar to my time in school, once someone called “action”, all of my worries disappeared and I lost myself in the moment and the character.

What was it like training at Internationale Akademie für Filmschauspiel (IAF), and how was your time as a student before graduating in 2024?

Besides all the incredible acting methods and tools I learned at IAF, I will be eternally grateful for all the lessons I received on discipline and what it takes to learn things on my own! Just because someone attended drama school for three years does not mean that they know everything about the craft. I see my time at school as the start of a lifelong pursuit of becoming the best actor I can be, and that requires me to always keep learning and exploring.

Where does your love of acting come from and how did you originally get into it?

I always knew I wanted to become an actor when growing up. The fact that I can live another person’s life and devote myself to their story sounded – and still sounds – like the best job in the world to me. Who are they? What made them like this? Why do they do what they do? Working on a script makes me feel like a detective trying to crack a case.

What are some of your favourite films and TV shows to watch?

Ohh, it really depends on my mood on the day! I am guilty of rewatching a lot of my comfort shows rather than starting new ones that could be equally exciting. Some of my favourites are Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Gravity Falls, and Teen Wolf.

When it comes to movies, I love stories that focus on people’s lives and their challenges, rather than grandiose events, like saving the world. Recently, I watched Hamnet, and it instantly became my favourite movie.

Have you received any advice over your career so far that has stuck with you?

“Don’t try to be interesting. Be interested”. I try to live by this advice in my professional as well as my personal life.

Do you have a process for learning scripts, and is there anything you find most enjoyable about working as an actor?

Yes! There are a lot of tools I work with when doing my script work, the order of which is very important to me. After having analysed the scene and the characters in it, as well as rehearsed my actor‘s work, memorising the lines happens very by the way.

What I enjoy most in my work as an actor is how present in the moment I have to be. Only if I believe myself in the given circumstances of the script so can the audience. This often causes me to feel more awake and grounded while acting than I feel in my personal life.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I enjoy reading non-fiction books, drawing, going on lots of dates with my fiancé, and – more than I am comfortable to admit – I like watching YouTube videos from Smosh.

What are you hoping 2026 brings you, and do you have any projects coming up that you can talk about?

I will be shooting for three months this summer, which is very exciting!

But besides that, I hope to be able to utilise the momentum of The Lady Grace Mysteries to book more roles in the future, which would allow me to tell the amazing stories of so many more characters which, in the end, is why I wanted to become an actor in the first place.

But for the time being, I cannot just sit around waiting for the right casting to find me. Which is why, right now I am teaming up with my partner to open our own production company, in the hopes of realising original screenplays and telling the stories we are so passionate about.

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