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The Don’s hit list

With 5 projects up for AFI Awards and 3 more coming up it's hard to think of a busier actor than Don Hany.

dhaIn the last two years actor Don Hany has appeared in a string of television’s most credible projects: East West 101, False Witness, Underbelly, Dirt Game, Chandon Pictures, The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce and Rush.

Next up he will appear in both Legend of the Seeker, which begins on FOX8 this Sunday, and TEN’s 2010 telemovie Offpsring.

No less than five projects he has been involved with are up for AFI Awards next month (although Hany appeared in Underbelly‘s first season).

Hany is also nominated for a Lead Actor award for East West 101 for the second year running.

If there is a busier actor, or one with a better agent, it’s hard to think of them.

East West 101, in which he plays Muslim detective Zane Malik, ends its run on SBS tonight. Against the birth on Packed to the Rafters and NCIS it will probably struggle to pass 150,000 viewers.

But SBS plans to rerun the series in a quick turnaround over summer, when it attracts its biggest audience.

Hany told TV Tonight he was pleased audiences will get a chance to sample the multicultural crime series again.

“SBS are generally pretty smart about trying to maximise the numbers,” he said. “They recognise the viewership is pretty sporadic so if they miss one they generally score again with the next.

“I think that’s how they built the first series up, with a number of repeats. And they do grass roots advertising with billboards and bus stops and stuff like that.”

Keeping up his appearances in quality pieces, next up Hany has a role in the second season of Showcase drama, Tangle.

“I’m working in Melbourne for the next little while doing Tangle with Matt Day and Kat Stewart. I’m really excited about it. We start in January,” he said.

“And I just worked on the pilot for Offspring. And if that gets picked up it would start in April.

“The pilot went really well. The tone of it was tough to find because it’s kind of like a romantic comedy, but it’s set in a hospital and around her family.

“But there’s some heavy drama in it as well.”

TEN is hoping to turn the story of the impossible loves of an obstetrician and her ‘fabulously messy family’, into a series. Asher Keddie plays the lead role of 30-something obstetrician Nina Proudman.

If it doesn’t open out to a full series, somehow Hany still looks set to be an actor in demand.

East West 101 airs at 8:30pm tonight on SBS ONE.

5 Responses

  1. EastWest 101 proves that Australia can produce world class TV. What a shame it plays to such a small audience. Maybe the ABC could do a deal with SBS and repeat it.

  2. David I have always wanted to catch East West 101 but completely forgot it had returned until last week and at the end of the season I don’t want to start watching now; are you able to put up a reminder or programming notice as to when SBS will screen East West 101 repeats?

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