Growing up dyslexic, the 2025 ACT Young Australian of the Year never saw himself as being a journalist.

But, Daniel Bartholomaeus, a Canberran who now lives in Googong, will feature on season two of The Assembly, which returns to the ABC on Sunday 21 September at 7:30pm.

The six-part series features renowned interviewer and journalist Leigh Sales, as a mentor to journalism students who live with autism to interview well-known figures.

Daniel said because of his dyslexia, being a journalist was never on his radar.

“But I saw this show and was like, ‘Well, why not?’ I mean, ‘I’ll give it a go’,” he told CD.

“I think journalism is a really important job as well because you can tell stories and show people the world and all these sorts of things.”

Daniel is an artist and neurodiversity advocate, who lives with autism and ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and has had anxiety and depression.

He said taking part in the show has boosted his confidence.

“I’ve grown so much out of the show,” Daniel said.

“This is something I would have never done before. Just having to get up and read a question in front of a famous person.”

“And you’ve got one, the group (the students), and two, you’ve got background people who are usually just extra guests as part of the audience.

“You’ve got a group of like 60 (people) plus the celebrity in front of you, so that can be very daunting.

“For me, it’s like exposure therapy on steroids.”

The A-listers appearing in this series who will be interviewed by the students are actor Richard Roxburgh, musician Guy Sebastian, journalist Ray Martin, Australian comedian Julia Morris, cricketer Steve Waugh, and cook Maggie Beer.

Daniel said it was difficult to choose who his favourite person to interview was.

“The reason why is they’re all so different,” he said.

“In terms of people that I knew, and people who I was star-struck by, Guy Sebastian and Maggie Beer, but the ones I didn’t know, they were very unique or different.”

When it comes to the other students, Daniel said he had become friends with most of the other students.

“Everyone got on so well because we’re all autistic and we all get each other so we can all vibe,” he said.

“It really was such a great sense of community, and I’ve probably created the closest friends I’ve ever made out of this process of filming.”

Daniel’s mother, Joanna Bartholomaeus also got to be part of the process.

“It was really amazing actually just seeing how it all comes together. How well they all did,” she told CD.

“I mean, the first interview you could tell they’re all really nervous and it’s a little different.

“And by the time they get to number six, you can see how much they’ve learnt and how much they’ve relaxed.”

Joanna said it was amazing to see a show that purely focused on people who live with autism and showed what they could do.

“Firstly, they’ve set up an environment that allows them to achieve this,” she said.

“When Daniel first went, you don’t know what you’re walking into, you don’t know what it’s going to be like.”

But, she said the production was conscious and welcoming.

She said the more the students did, the more comfortable they became.

“Because of that, they achieved more than I think a lot of them thought they ever could,” Joanna said.

“It shows that they can. These people can achieve so much if they’re just given the right inclusions in the right environments and the right opportunities.”

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