Nicholas Brown (actor)

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Nicholas Brown is an Australian actor, singer, songwriter, and screenwriter.

Personal life[]

Brown grew up in the Western Sydney suburb of Greystanes with parents Roy and Patricia Brown and older sister Tracey. He attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in years 11 and 12 as an auditioned drama student. Whilst at NHSPA he represented the school in various drama and music festivals including OnStage and School Spectacular and was elected School Captain in 1997.^[1]

In 1998 Brown was accepted into the prestigious Australian drama school the National Institute of Dramatic Art and was said to be both one of the youngest students and the first student to be accepted directly from high school.^[2]

In 2010 Brown was a Cleo Bachelor of the Year^[3] nominee.

Acting career[]

Brown recently returned to Australia from Mumbai to appear in Mr and Mrs Murder, Packed to the Rafters and played the real life heroine drug smuggler Supahaus in the leading Australian television show Underbelly: The Man Who Got Away. Brown has also appeared in the short film 'Bani Ibrahim' and Channel 7 comedy pilot 'Lucky Dragon'^[4] and Australian feature films ‘The Characters’, 'Temptation' and 'A Man's Gotta Do'. His television credits include 'Home and Away',^[5] 'White Collar Blue', 'Heartbreak High', 'Drama School' and 'The Cooks'.^[6]

Acting in many international theatre festivals, in 2010 Brown performed in three new plays at the Australian National Play Festival in Brisbane, in Rehaan Engineer's ‘Seven Jewish Children’ by Caryl Churchill, Project 88 Art Gallery in Mumbai and 'Doctrine: How To Survive Under Siege' in Brussels, Belgium for the Kunsten Festival Des Arts.^[7] Brown also represented the NIDA company at the UNESCO 2007 drama schools festival in Transylvania Romania, playing Orestes in Aeschylus's Ancient Greek tragedy 'The Oresteian Trilogy.'^[8]

Brown also played the villain Nikhil Madhvani opposite Shilpa Shetty in 'Miss Bollywood' which toured Germany and the UK including London's West End.^[9] Other theatre credits include ‘There Is No Need To Wake Up’ at the Sydney Opera House directed by Barrie Kosky; Kurt Weill's 'Berlin to Broadway' directed by Jim Sharman; 'Spunks' at the Stables Theatre; 'Frozen' for Company B Belvoir St Theatre directed by Kate Gaul; Toad in the Australian Shakespeare Company's productions of 'Wind in the Willows' and Martin Crimp's 'Fewer Emergencies' at The Old Fitzroy Theatre^[10] and 2005 Hi-5 Space Magic – World Tour.^[11]

In May 2021, Brown played Petruchio in William Shakespeare's The taming of the shrew with Queensland Theatre (in the Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane), directed by Damien Ryan.^[12] Katharina was played by Anna McGahan.

Writer[]

Brown's screenwriting credits include The Aussie Bollywood film 'Lighten Up'^[13] with Olivia Newton-John^[14]

Music[]

Brown was the lead singer of the LA based funk band Knuckle Funk in 2011–2012. As singer/songwriter, Brown also recorded the album 'Big Score' in 2005 with his Australian disco funk band The Modernists^[15] in 2004 and performed at Australian venues such as The Basement and The Metro.

In 2005 he was the male understudy for the children's internationally recognised pop group Hi-5^[16] on their world tour.

Brown was also invited to sing at ‘Raise the Roof’ at Sydney’s State Theatre in a special concert to raise funds for the Tsunami Appeal in 2006.^[17] Nick wrote and recorded an album with the electro rock outfit ‘Listen Like Thieves’ and is planning a solo release in 2010.

Radio presenter[]

Brown is currently hosting SBS Radio's PopDesi – the biggest Bollywood, Bhangra and Desi pop playing on Australian digital radio, online and mobile^[18]

Awards[]

In 2004 Brown was a recipient of The Mike Walsh Fellowship.^[19]

Community work[]

His charity work includes:

• 2013 – Performed at the 'National Asbestos Awareness Day Lighting the Sails' of the Sydney Opera House event in memory of the victims of asbestos related disease.
• 2012 – Supporting the work of the National Youth Theatre Company Foundation^[20] as an ambassador and through facilitating youth welfare programs.
• 2010 – The official male Ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia's 2010 Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month campaign ^[21]
• 2006 – Raise The Roof – Tsunami Appeal special appearance for the Red Cross
• 2005 – Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Foundation – official MC and voice of the RPA Foundation Research Prize
• 2004 – Royal Prince Alfred Hospital – RPA Health Festival volunteer and special guest
• 2003 – Music For Timor – Master of Ceremonies and performer at Music benefit concert to support the work of the Bairo Pite Clinic^[22]

Credits[]

Screen[]

Stage[]

References[]