Hannah Diviney was a self-proclaimed “drama kid”. She grew up watching the likes of Lindsey Lohan, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez on screen, and always thought acting was a passion she’d pursue.

She spent her early years taking drama classes and holiday workshops at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), but as she grew older, she quickly realised becoming an actor “wasn’t really an option” for her.

“There just weren’t roles for disabled people,” she said. “I didn’t see disabled characters, let alone disabled actors.”

Fast forward several years, and 23-year-old Diviney is starring in Latecomers, a new show on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand, that breaks fresh ground for disability representation on television.

In her first official acting role, she’s making Australian television history by portraying the intricacies of sex and disability in a way we haven’t seen before.

“I get to own that piece of television history, which is really cool but also really intimidating,” Diviney shares, noting how monumental it is for a television show to be portraying disabled people as sexual beings.

“Because disabled people have sexual desire,” she says. “I feel like me even saying that sentence is going to make people squirm a little bit because the intersection of disability and sex is really taboo.”

“This show blows that out of the water. It’s revolutionary for Australian television.”

Outside of acting, Divney has received global attention for her work as a disability advocate, and as the Editor-in-Chief of social impact publication Missing Perspectives.

In Latecomers, Hannah plays Sarah, a young woman with cerebral palsy, who meets Frank (played by Angus Thompson), who also has cerebral palsy. The two are brought together when their respective carers hook up at a bar.

Watching disabled people exploring romance and sexuality is important, Diviney says, because “it’s a reminder that disabled people are people”.

“It sounds stupidly obvious, but unfortunately the way our society is set up, we very much have a binary view of the way we view disabled people,” she says, explaining that we often only see disabled people through a prism of “inspiration” - or at the other end of the binary - “tragedy”.

“None of that is about our joy, none of that is about our agency, none of that is about the lives we want to live. And I think, unfortunately, it won't improve until the very literal visibility of disabled people in society is improved,” Diviney says.

“The idea that disabled people could be in a romantic relationship is quite confronting. But it's really important because disabled people have the same wants, dreams, needs, desires as everyone else. Wanting to be understood and wanting to be seen and wanting to be loved and cared for is a pretty basic human desire.”

It helps that two of the show’s creators and writers, Emma Myers and Angus Thompson (who also plays Frank) have cerebral palsy, while comedian and writer Nina Oyama has drawn on her experience as a carer.

Diviney notes that her character is not “meek or passive”, but a headstrong woman with agency.

“Stuff doesn’t happen to Sarah; she goes after what she wants – particularly in the sex scene. It was important to me that she was an active participant in that and that it wasn’t just insinuated what was happening,” she said.

“We actually make the viewer sit with it and take in what a disabled body looks like. We made sure there was lots of love between my body and the camera. It was super intimidating to film but so important and much bigger than me personally.”

It was such a poignant scene to shoot (aided by an intimacy coordinator on set) that the cast and crew burst into tears once it was over.

“We realised that we’d done it. We were pretty sure we’d created something beautiful,” Diviney recalls.

Asked what having a show like Latecomers on television would have meant to her teenage self, Diviney replies that it would have meant the world to a 15-year-old Hannah.

“It sounds cliché, but it would have changed everything,” she says. “It probably would have prevented a lot of the self-worth and confidence issues that I've internalised and I'm now working really hard to unpack.”

“It would have meant that other people in my high school got to see me as a full person. Or, as my co-star, Angus, puts it, as a romantic option.”

And to the critics who question how much of a positive impact representation on television can have? Diviney asks them to consider their position in the world.

“It’s hard to explain to people who have always seen themselves represented just how much representation means,” she says.

“I think anyone who was privileged enough to have that opinion has never had to wonder what their life might look like. They've never had to look at themselves in the mirror so hard because they're afraid that if they look away, they might disappear.”

The impact the show is already having is immeasurable, with Diviney receiving comment after comment from people who say they feel seen for the first time in a rom-com.

As for Diviney herself, Latecomers has given her a taste for a career on the screen.

“I can’t wait to do more acting because I’ve definitely been bitten by the bug.”