Tony Nikolakopoulos is an Australian film, theatre and television actor.
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Early life
Nikolakopoulos was born in Melbourne, Victoria to parents hailing from southern Greece. He attended Rusden College (now Deakin University) for five years, where he completed a Bachelor of Education. The year after he graduated, he was asked to return to the school to teach drama classes and direct several productions for six years.
Career
Nikolakopoulos has appeared in many television series, feature films and short films. He is best known for his work in the comedy films of Nick Giannopoulos, including The Wog Boy franchise (2000, 2010 and 2022), in which he starred as Theo and The Wannabes (2003) as Stewie, alongside Isla Fisher. He is also known for his role as Attilio in the television series Scooter: Secret Agent.
After leaning towards a career in directing after his teaching stint at Deakin University, Nikolakopoulos' passion for acting was reignited when he landed a role in his first feature film, the critically-acclaimed 1998 drama Head On. He appeared opposite Alex Dimitriades, playing the role of his 55-year old father, Dimitri, when he was only 31. In 2000, he then originated the role of neck-brace wearing Theo in the first of The Wog Boy films, alongside Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo.
Further film appearances came with 2003 buddy action-comedy film Kangaroo Jack, with Jerry O’Connell and Christopher Walken. Then in 2005, he acted alongside Jimeoin in comedy feature The Extra and with Sigrid Thornton in television film Little Oberon.
In 2010, Nikolakopoulos reprised his role as Theo in the second installment of The Wog Boy movie franchise, The Kings of Mykonos. He later played the lead role of Alan Figg in 2014 crime drama The Legend Maker. That same year, he appeared in sci-fi film Predestination, opposite Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor. Following this, were roles in Alex & Eve (2015) as George, Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2016) as Nino Cinque and West of Sunshine (2017) as Banos. The third film in The Wog Boy trilogy, Wog Boys Forever, allowed Nikolakopoulos to reprise his role as Theo once more in 2022.
Nikolakopoulos also has numerous television credits to his name. After making guest appearances in series including Blue Heelers, SeaChange, State Coroner, Stingers and Pizza, he landed the regular role of Attilio in children's series Scooter: Secret Agent in 2005. An ongoing role as Cannonball Bob in children's series Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji followed in 2007, before he played the recurring role of Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin’s father in the first season of Underbelly.
More television guest roles followed, in All Saints, East West 101, City Homicide, Tangle, Rush, American war drama miniseries The Pacific, Killing Time, Small Time Gangster, Offspring, Reef Doctors, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Time of Our Lives and Please Like Me. Nikolakopoulos then appeared in another Underbelly spin-off – the miniseries Fat Tony & Co. playing Stavros Makrakanis, before landing a recurring role in prison drama Wentworth from 2014 to 2016, as Nils Jesper.
Nikolakopoulos made further guest appearances in Here Come the Habibs, 2018 miniseries Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You, Utopia, Jack Irish with Guy Pearce and The Tourist, playing Nico, opposite Jamie Dornan. His most recent recurring roles include playing Fat George in autobiographical underworld crime drama Last King of the Cross in 2023 and a voice role as Grandpa in animated children's series Tales From Outer Suburbia, which began airing in January 2026.
Nikolakopoulos has also acted in numerous theatre productions, beginning with a performance in Ignatious Rodney Timms at Victoria College, Melbourne in 1986. Over the course of his career, he has appeared for La Mama, Melbourne Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia and has performed in productions of the classics including The Crucible, Waiting for Godot and Hamlet.
In 1996, Nikolakopoulos toured nationally in Wog and His Mates and between 2000 and 2005, he performed in Roulette, across both Australia and in Portugal with Ranters Theatre Company. From 2007 to 2008, he was part of the cast in a production of The Spook that toured Victoria. He played the role of Stavrakis in Cafe Rebetika in 2009 and again in 2011. From 2019 to 2020, he appeared in a national touring production of Anthem.
Nikolakopoulos has also directed over a hundred theatre productions for Stage School Australia, Victorian Youth Theatre and his own production company KT Productions. In 2023, he wrote and directed the play Life of Byron.
In 2025, together with his brother Peter, Nikolakopoulos co-founded the Performing Star Academy, a children's creative arts, performance, and sports academy, with Nikolakopoulos overseeing performance and Peter running the AllStars Academy sports division.
In addition to his teaching stint at Deakin University, Nikolakopoulos has worked as an acting and drama lecturer/teacher at University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts.
Personal life
Nikolakopoulos is married to clinical psychologist, Dr Julia Hosie.