Alex Dimitriades mini-bio: Alex (Alexander) Dimitriades was born on December 28, 1973 in Sydney.
His parents immigrated to Australia from Greece, but divorced when he was twelve. Alex's got a brother, George, and a sister, Melissa, and went to an all boys school with
uniforms and strict teachers, but liked it there. He likes good documentaries, travelling, playing rugby league and soccer, and listening to music (New York house and Junio Rough Groove). His favourite films are The One And Only, The Legendary and Scarface, and his favourite actors are Meryl Streep, Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. The most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to him is being thrown over a fence into somebody's backyard pool by a group of friends at twelve. When Alex was 17 and a high-school student in a Sydney suburb, the casting director of The Heartbreak Kid visited his school looking for someone to play the lead role of Nick Polides, and Alex, who'd never acted before but thought he'd give it a try for a laugh, went to audition.
Being in big productions - first the film, then the television series - was fairly daunting, but as Alex's own family is Greek and Nick's personality is quite like his, he could understand and identify with Nick straight away. Alex found it easy to play a character with so much
energy. He was the first real star of Heartbreak High and very popular, but his character Nick died in the last episode of series 1 because Alex wanted too much money for his role. Producers Gannon and Jenkins much wanted him to stay, but the
television station wouldn't allow it. Because the viewers never actually saw Nick die, rumours of his return kept going. Once he had left the show Alex appeared in the film The Blonde Man in 1994, in G.P. in 1996, and in stage production Wogboys. Moreover, Alex played Ari, who uses hard drugs and has rough sex with other men, in the 1998 film Head On. After he'd read the book the
movie is based on, Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas, he was impressed but freaked out. The movie's sex scenes were scary for Alex, and he was worried about being too convincing, though he'd never kissed a man before.
The critics were rapt: "his performance is sensational", "we've seen some great performances from Australian actors before, but how many of them have been this good?", "he has a great future as an actor ahead of him and this film is a milestone which will bring him to the attention of the international market".
After making the film Alex considered giving up acting, but didn't, and he now laughs at the idea. He's only become more successful, and got scripts from America.
Filmography:
Victor in December (2005)
Go Big (2004) (TV) .... Hamish Fitz-Herbert
Subterano (2003) .... Conrad
Ghost Ship (2002) .... Santos
Spagnola, La (2001) .... Stefano
The Love of Lionel's Life (2000) (TV) .... Steve
Head On (1998) .... Ari
