In this episode, Lucy Durack, star of Wicked and Legally Blonde, and Elise McCann, star of Mamma Mia and Matilda, talk about how Hey Lemonade grew from two friends swapping pep talks into a motivational app featuring scripts written by some of Australia’s greatest creatives.
This episode provides the inside story of how this app got built, funded, written and brought to life by two of Australia’s favourite actresses, each stepping out of their comfort zone to become tech entrepreneurs.
We cover:
- How a moment during COVID sparked the original idea for Hey Lemonade.
- The writing room process for creating the scripts.
- Why writing, not technology, sits at the heart of the app.
- How they found and briefed Australia’s top creatives to write the pep talks.
- The challenges of writing for an app.
- The role of humour, empathy, and clarity in mental health writing.
- Navigating funding, partnerships, and growth whilst retaining the purpose and friendship that underpinned it.
If you’re interested in writing purpose-driven content and building a tech product from scratch, this episode is for you.
Elise Mccann bio:
Actor, producer and co-founder of Hey Lemonade, Elise is a Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award winner and one of Australia's most sought-after leading ladies. She is most well known for playing Miss Honey in Matilda the Musical, Donna in Mamma Mia, Rita in Groundhog Day the Musical, Celia Fowler in Law and Order SVU (S26), Lynne Woolnough in Peter Allen Not the Boy Next Door (Ch7) and as Lucille Ball in Everybody Loves Lucy, which Elise co-created, wrote and starred in.
Elise is a graduate of NIDA and studied law at the University of NSW. In 2014, she founded her own production company, Oriel Entertainment, whereby she has created and produced theatre, musicals and concerts for Sydney Opera House, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, QPAC, Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the ABC. Elise's debut album Dahlesque was released with ABC/ Universal in 2017. For screen, Elise has worked as a producer, dramaturge and creative content developer, both locally and internationally, including a producer placement with Sarah Jessica Parker’s all-female production company Pretty Matches Productions in New York City.
As cofounder of evidence-based pep talk company Hey Lemonade, she won Best New Business at the 2023 Australian Women's Small Business Awards and the 2024 NSW Telstra Best of Business Award.
Elise is currently starring as Barbara Maitland in the Australian / International production of Beetlejuice the Musical and recently starred alongside Caroline O'Connor in ‘Happy People' in Concert in New York in September 2025.
Lucy Durack Bio:
Lucy is an AACTA, Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award winner and one of Australia’s leading ladies, with major stage and screen roles to her credit including Glinda in Wicked (GFO), Sophie in The Letdown (Netflix/ABC), Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical (GFO), Roxy in Sisters (Network Ten/Netflix), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (GFO), Chantelle “Tugger” Waugh in Doctor Doctor (Nine Network/Acorn TV), Audra in A Perfect Pairing (Netflix) and a judge on Australia’s Got Talent (Fremantle/Nine Network).
Lucy graduated from WAAPA with a Bachelor of Arts (Music Theatre), studied law at the University of Sydney and created/hosted My Soundtrack; the ABC’s most downloaded radio show during the 5 years of its run. Lucy co-wrote and starred in Lift, which premiered on Network Ten and won the Best Screen Play Asia Web Award and Love In Lockdown, which won the AACTA Award for Best Online Drama or Comedy.
Lucy records the I Love With Lucy podcast for Nova Entertainment, is one of the lead voices for the upcoming animated children’s show Andrew the Big Big Unicorn for ABCTV, is the cofounder for evidence based pep talk company Hey Lemonade for which she won Best New Business at the 2023 Australian Women in Small Business Awards and the 2024 NSW Telstra Best of Business Award and is in development with Gristmill Productions, Matchbox Pictures, Highly Spirited Pictures and Jungle Entertainment on multiple screen projects.
Mentioned in this episode: