Mojean Aria remembers being a kid in Sydney in 2001 and going to dinner with his family at Fox Studios when they noticed a premiere for Heath Ledger's film A Knight's Tale was being held.
Aria wanted to be an actor and his Iranian immigrant mother encouraged him to sneak into the screening.
Aria successfully evaded security and met Ledger.
"I got to talk to him, but it was his presence that I felt," the now 24-year-old told AAP.
It was a moment that changed Aria's life.
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He studied to become an actor and on Thursday in Los Angeles he was selected by an all-star panel of judges including Naomi Watts and Gary Oldman to be the 2017 winner of the Heath Ledger scholarship.
The late Oscar winner's father Kim, mother Sally and sisters Kate and Ashleigh were at the Australians in Film organised event at the Sunset Marquis Hotel to present Aria with the $US16,000 prize designed to help him break into Hollywood.
It is the ninth year a scholarship has been handed to a young Australian actor.
Ledger died in 2008 from an accidental prescription drug overdose in New York.
Aria joked his name "is not the most typical Australian name" and said he hoped the win would encourage other young "wogs" to pursue acting in Australia.
He said people had told him "to give up on this Heath Ledger thing" because "they're never going to accept you as an Australian".
