Simon Kassianides

Kassianides was born in London, of Greek Cypriot origin, the son of Helen and Mario Kassianides, both business owners. Kassianides has an older brother, Photis Kassianides, who works in finance.

Kassianides was brought up in Clapham and educated at Dulwich College. At the University of Edinburgh he was the producer and executive producer of a sold out run of Grease at the George Square theatre. Profits were donated to the Macmillan Cancer Support.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, soon after Kassianides graduated with honours in International Business with Finance and while in London helping his mother open Urban Coffee,^[1][2] a fair trade and organic coffee shop in Tooting Broadway, he was spotted by BAFTA award-winning producer Piers Vellacott.^{[citation needed]}

Kassianides started a course at London's Central School of Speech and Drama but had to leave after being offered a role in the Tennessee Williams' play Night of the Iguana. His performance as Pedro was acclaimed by critics.^[3]

Soon after, Kassianides was noted as an actor to watch in a BBC documentary called Making it at Holby.^{[citation needed]}

Since then, Kassianides has appeared in a number of television episodes in the USA and UK, including Casualty, My Life in Film, Plane Spotting, Ultimate Force, Spooks, Recovery, Holby Blue, Suburban Shootout, The Kylie Show, Ashes to Ashes, The Passion, The Fixer, Love Soup, Hustle, Law and Order UK, Nikita, Burn Notice, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Kassianides has also appeared in several international films such as The Edge of Love, Wuthering Heights, Between Two Fires, Quantum of Solace and Smooch.

In 2010, Kassianides produced, directed and starred in Geezas, a film he completed in record time and within budget.^[4] The film made the official selection of the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival,^[5] selling out The Arclight Movie Theatre in Hollywood at its premiere. In 2012, Simon Kassianides was nominated as a Discovery Director to watch at the Hollywood Film Festival^{[clarification needed]} for Geezas,^{[citation needed]} which won "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actress" at the 2013 British Independent Film Festival. Kassianides directed first time actors who won against the likes of Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) and Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy).^[6]

His work rate and ethic was spotted by the administrators of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation^[7]—created by Michael Cacoyannis, director of Zorba the Greek, to help and promote Greek artists—and was appointed a Global Consultant and Representative of the Foundation in 2012.