Canberra singer-songwriter Mina-Siale, 18, entered triple j's Unearthed High competition last year.

She didn't win, but in January she auditioned for a new ABC ME show and landed a lead role.

In Soundtrack To Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse, Mina-Siale plays a teenager named Ella - who wants to win the triple J Unearthed High competition.

But Ella's situation is rather more dicey than that of the actor who plays her.

Set two years after the start of a zombie plague, Soundtrack To Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse is a 10-part series in which four teenagers wind up in the deserted, run-down ABC building in Sydney (keep an eye out for a cameo by Big Ted in the first episode).

Ella, Nick (played by Nick Annas), his celebrity crush Locksley (Isaiah Galloway) and Ella's studious high-school nemesis Veronica (Ruby Archer) are all ambitious musicians.

Locksley won the Unearthed High competition last year and the other three are all desperately keen to win it this time, so they keep working on their material while surviving on vending-machine snacks.

Being trapped in a building where an "undie" - their word for undead, or zombie - could lurch out at any time is a secondary concern.

Mina-Siale describes it as "just a really fun music comedy-drama" but acknowledges the creators - writers Adam Bigum and Hannah Samuel and director Imogen McCluskey - intend it to parallel the experience of living under COVID lockdown and to present complex adolescent relationships that change over time.

"Ella is a very passionate songwriter who's best friends with Nick. They're in a band together - Ella & Nick."

She's the singer-songwriter, he's the producer - but he also works with other musicians.

"That causes drama between the two."

It's not an issue that he's gay but when he spends time with others musically, in particular her rival Veronica, Ella is not happy.

Mina-Siale completed her schooling in 2021 and saw a casting call on Instagram for an ABC ME show.

"I'm in my gap year right now so I thought I'd give it a go and see what happened."

She sent a video audition for the part of Veronica, whom she says she's more like - but found out in March she had been cast as Ella.

Annas, she says, has been acting for seven years - the others are musicians, who, like Mina-Siale, had no prior acting experience. But working with Annas and McCluskey - as well as Bignum, who as one of the producers was frequently on set - helped.

The foursome, despite only meeting at the table read, got on well, not like the often fractious relationships of their characters.

"It's been such a pleasure to work with these three."

The songs for the show were written by songwriters Jodi Phillis and Damien Laane to tie in the action but MIna-Siale did her own singing.

"Ella plays guitar so I had to learn guitar before filming - it was quite hard."

The guitar playing was dubbed but she had to finger the strings convincingly.

"I could mime a lot - I hope I pulled it off."

Mina-Siale grew up in Garran and graduated last year from Narrabundah College.

"I've been playing piano for most of my life," she says, and like her father, Alopi Latukefu, she's a writer of songs as well as a performer.

"I started writing songs about my life when I was about 12," she says, exploring subjects like friendship and love and a teenage crush: "It's like a diary."

She has recorded a few songs at Amberly Studios in Tuggeranong and has had some of her music played on ABC radio.

Mina-Siale performs frequently in Canberra both in venues and as a busker and says there are a lot of opportunities.

"The southside markets and Fyshwick markets are really great places to perform - that was how I made most of my money during high school."

That cash paid for her performing equipment and soon she will put it towards her studies - she's moving to Sydney to study filmmaking at the University of Technology next year.

"I love filmmaking - I thought I'd give that a go, to have that skill in my pocket."