Don Hany is an Australian film, television, and stage actor. He is best known in Australia for his role as Zane Malik in East West 101 and in the US for starring in the NBC medical comedy-drama series Heartbeat (2016).
He has received a number of accolades and nominations. He won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor, playing the protagonist, Zane Malik, in the SBS series East West 101 (2007–2011). He also received three AACTA Awards nominations for the role.
He had an early role playing Senior Constable Theo Rahme in the Network 10 police drama series White Collar Blue (2002–2003) for two seasons. He also played Dr. Chris Havel in the Network 10 comedy-drama series Offspring (2010–2011). In 2014, he starred in the prison drama film Healing, for which he received a Best Actor award nomination from the Film Critics Circle of Australia. In 2017, he starred in the romantic comedy film Ali's Wedding, for which he received a nomination for AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He played Dr. Mackenzie in the Showcase mystery romantic drama series Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018). He also played the Australian prime minister in the second season of Showcase political thriller television series Secret City (2019).
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Early life and education
Don Hany was born in Australia to an Iraqi father, Tewfiq, and a Hungarian mother, Csilla; his father is a classically-trained pianist and restaurateur, and his mother is a doctor of economics. Hany's maternal great-grandfather was shot dead outside his home in Miskolc by the Red Army, who mistook him for a German soldier. In 1946, Hany's maternal grandfather joined the Hungarian Communist Party. His parents met in Budapest in the 1960s and they emigrated to Australia in 1970. Csilla rejected the communist doctrine of her native country and Tewfiq spurned the Islamic beliefs of his upbringing. His parents divorced during his adolescence, and he and his twin brother were raised by their mother.
Hany grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales. He attended high school in the Netherlands for one year as an exchange student, and later completed a degree in dramatic arts at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean.
Career
In 1998, Hany began his television career, starring in the soapie Breakers. In 2000, he had a small role in Water Rats. In 2002, he had a role in the telemovie Heroes' Mountain and in the police drama White Collar Blue. He later moved to Los Angeles to complete shooting for the short film Winning the Peace. Hany plays an Iraqi-American Marine deployed to Baghdad, and he went on to win the Best Actor award at Method Fest in 2005.
In 2006, he returned to Australia to work on the film Lucky Miles, which went on to win the audience award for Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival. Beginning in 2007, Hany starred in the Australian mini-drama series East West 101 for SBS television, in which he played the lead role of Zane Malik. The show was later expanded, running for two more seasons, concluding in 2011. In 2010, Hany won the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor, having been previously nominated for the same role in 2008. In 2012, Hany and the cast won the Equity Award for Most Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for their work in the third season of the show.
In 2008, he had a recurring role in the first season of Underbelly, an acclaimed Australian television true crime-drama series on the Nine Network. The series depicts the 1995–2004 gangland war in Melbourne, with Hany playing Nik Radev. In 2009, Hany also starred in the two-part Australian television mini-series False Witness for BBC UKTV. Hany played the role of Sergei Krousov, a Russian mafia figure. In the same year, he starred alongside Joel Edgerton in ABC1's drama series Dirt Game.
In 2010, he joined the main cast of the Foxtel drama Tangle, playing politician Spiros Georgiades. He also joined Channel Ten's comedy-drama series Offspring, in the role of paediatrician Chris Havel. He played the love interest and colleague of the series' protagonist, Dr Nina Proudman, played by Asher Keddie. In 2011, he was nominated for the Logie Award for Most Popular Actor for his roles in Tangle and Offspring.
In 2011, Hany starred in the Nine Network movie premiere of Underbelly Files: Tell Them Lucifer was Here, reprising his role from Underbelly, Nik Radev. In 2012, he was cast in two telemovies, Jack Irish: Bad Debts and Jack Irish: Black Tide, which are based on the books Bad Debts and Black Tide by Peter Temple, and which aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Personal life
Hany married actress Alin Sumarwata in 2011. The couple have two daughters.
He is an agnostic atheist.
