Tony Nikolakopoulos

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.^[2][3] The year after he graduated, he was asked to return to the school to teach drama classes and direct several productions for six years.^[2]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

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^[4] and The Wannabes (2003) as Stewie, alongside Isla Fisher.^[5] He is also known for his role as Attilio in the television series Scooter: Secret Agent.^[6]

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.^[2][7] 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.^[8]

Further film appearances came with 2003 buddy action-comedy film Kangaroo Jack, with Jerry O’Connell and Christopher Walken.^[9] Then in 2005, he acted alongside Jimeoin in comedy feature The Extra^[10] and with Sigrid Thornton in television film Little Oberon.^[11]

In 2010, Nikolakopoulos reprised his role as Theo in the second installment of The Wog Boy movie franchise, The Kings of Mykonos.^[12] He later played the lead role of Alan Figg in 2014 crime drama The Legend Maker.^[13] That same year, he appeared in sci-fi film Predestination, opposite Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor.^[14] Following this, were roles in Alex & Eve (2015) as George,^[15] Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2016) as Nino Cinque^[16] and West of Sunshine (2017) as Banos.^[17] The third film in The Wog Boy trilogy, Wog Boys Forever, allowed Nikolakopoulos to reprise his role as Theo once more in 2022.^[18]

Nikolakopoulos also has numerous television credits to his name. After making guest appearances in series including Blue Heelers,^[19] SeaChange,^[20] State Coroner,^[21] Stingers^[22] and Pizza,^[23] he landed the regular role of Attilio in children's series Scooter: Secret Agent in 2005.^[6][24] An ongoing role as Cannonball Bob in children's series Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji followed in 2007,^[25] before he played the recurring role of Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin’s father in the first season of Underbelly.^[26]

More television guest roles followed, in All Saints,^[27] East West 101,^[28] City Homicide,^[29] Tangle,^[30] Rush,^[31] American war drama miniseries The Pacific, Killing Time,^[32] Small Time Gangster,^[33] Offspring,^[34] Reef Doctors,^[35] The Doctor Blake Mysteries,^[36] The Time of Our Lives^[37] and Please Like Me.^[38] Nikolakopoulos then appeared in another Underbelly spin-off – the miniseries Fat Tony & Co. playing Stavros Makrakanis,^[39] before landing a recurring role in prison drama Wentworth from 2014 to 2016, as Nils Jesper.^[40][41]

Nikolakopoulos made further guest appearances in Here Come the Habibs,^[42] 2018 miniseries Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You,^[43] Utopia, Jack Irish with Guy Pearce^[44] and The Tourist, playing Nico, opposite Jamie Dornan.^[45] His most recent recurring roles include playing Fat George in autobiographical underworld crime drama Last King of the Cross in 2023^[46] and a voice role as Grandpa in animated children's series Tales From Outer Suburbia, which began airing in January 2026.^[47]

Nikolakopoulos has also acted in numerous theatre productions, beginning with a performance in Ignatious Rodney Timms at Victoria College, Melbourne in 1986.^[1] 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.^[1]

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.^[1] From 2007 to 2008, he was part of the cast in a production of The Spook that toured Victoria.^[1] He played the role of Stavrakis in Cafe Rebetika in 2009 and again in 2011.^[48] From 2019 to 2020, he appeared in a national touring production of Anthem.^[1]

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.^[49]

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.^[50]

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.^[51]

Nikolakopoulos is married to clinical psychologist, Dr Julia Hosie.^[52]

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref
	296 Smith Street	Melbourne International Film Festival		Won	[53]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1995	Janus	Lou De Luca	1 episode	[54]
1997–2002	Blue Heelers	Trevor / Stavros	2 episodes	[19]
1998	SeaChange	Rodney	1 episode	[20]
	State Coroner	Theo	1 episode	[21]
1999–2003	Stingers	Milos / Stipanic	2 episodes	[22]
2001	Pizza		1 episode	[23]
2002	White Collar Blue	Stavros	TV movie
2004	The Brush-Off	Mavramoustakides	TV movie	[55]
2005	The Glenmoore Job	Sergeant	TV movie
	Little Oberon	Baker	TV movie	[11]
	Holly's Heroes	Franco's Dad	2 episodes
	Scooter: Secret Agent	Attilio	24 episodes	[24]
2007	Kick	Hakim	1 episode
	Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji	Cannonball Bob	13 episodes	[25]
2008	Underbelly	Veniamin father	3 episodes	[26]
	All Saints	Dominic	2 episodes	[27]
2009	East West 101	Omar	2 episodes	[28]
	Whatever Happened to That Guy?	Nick	1 episode
	City Homicide	Jackson Pittman	1 episode	[29]
2009–2010	Tangle	Gordon	3 episodes	[30]
2010	Rush	Edward	1 episode	[31]
	Lowdown	George	1 episode
	The Pacific	Baba Karamanlis	Miniseries, 1 episode
2011	Killing Time	Manny the Mutt	2 episodes	[32]
	Small Time Gangster	Glen	1 episode	[33]
2013	Offspring	Harry	1 episode	[34]
	Reef Doctors	Barry	1 episode	[35]
	The Doctor Blake Mysteries	Nick Manos	1 episode	[36]
2013–2014	The Time of Our Lives	Anton	2 episodes	[37]
2014	Please Like Me	Cleaner	1 episode	[38]
	Fat Tony & Co.	Stavros Makrakanis	3 episodes	[39]
	Altruman		Miniseries	[56]
2014–2016	Wentworth	Nils Jesper	9 episodes	[41][40]
2016	Here Come the Habibs	Jiddo	2 episodes	[42]
2017	Fancy Boy	Alfonse	1 episode
2018	True Story with Hamish & Andy	Brother Michaels	1 episode	[57]
	Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You	Artie Mogull	Miniseries, 1 episode	[43]
	Drama Club	Faruk	Miniseries
2019	Utopia	Mr Papagenous	1 episode
2020	AussieWood	Hakim Khan	TV series
2021	Jack Irish	Stavros	1 episode	[44]
2022	The Tourist	Nico	Miniseries, 1 episode	[58][45]
2023	Last King of the Cross	Fat George	3 episodes	[59][46]
2026	Tales From Outer Suburbia	Grandpa	7 episodes	[60][47]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1996	Life	Prison Officer 3	Feature film	[61]
1998	Head On	Dimitri	Feature film	[7]
2000	Nameday		Short film
	The Wog Boy	Theo	Feature film	[4][8]
2001	Beggar		Short film	[62]
2002	Magda		Short film
2003	Kangaroo Jack	Sal's Capo	Feature film	[9]
	The Wannabes (aka Criminal Ways)	Stewie	Feature film	[5]
	Alice	Computer Service Man	Short film
2004	Tom White	Sergeant	Feature film	[61]
2005	The Extra	Tony (bouncer)	Feature film	[10]
	The Drop	The Driver	Short film	[63]
2006	Forged	Sargon	Short film	[64]
2007	The Independent	Tony Bentakis	Feature film	[65]
2008	296 Smith Street	Ahmed	Short film	[66]
2009	Imprint	Bus Driver	Short film
	One Night	Taxi Driver	Short film
	Beware of Black Dog!	Max / Wolf / Landlord (voices)	Animated short film
	Bad Language	Kosta	Short film	[67]
2010	Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos	Theo	Feature film	[4][12]
2011	Absence	Father	Short film
	Joey	Tony	Short film
	Exit	Shopkeeper	Feature film	[68]
	Big Mamma's Boy	Butcher	Feature film	[69]
2012	Mother's Day	Alex	Short film
2013	Let Go	Peter	Short film
2014	Predestination	Driver	Feature film	[14]
	The Rack and the Screw	Lucas	Short film
	Rigor Mortis	Chris	Short film
	The Legend Maker	Alan Figg	Feature film	[13]
2015	Alex & Eve	George	Feature film	[15]
	Match	Tony	Short film	[70]
2016	Dream of a Shadow	Tony	Feature film	[71]
	Joe Cinque’s Consolation	Nino Cinque	Feature film	[16]
2017	West of Sunshine	Banos	Feature film	[17][72]
	Theodore's Gift	Theodore	Short film	[73]
2018	Sad Sachs	Tony Varoufakis	Short film	[74]
2021	Container		Short film	[75]
2022	Wog Boys Forever	Theo	Feature film	[4][18]
2023	Finally Me	Mr Mitsos	Feature film	[76]
2025	Repose		Short film	[62]