Fayssal Bazzi

Fayssal Bazzi (Arabic: فيصل بزي; born 1982) is an Australian actor. He was nominated for the 2018 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Merger and again in 2020 for Measure for Measure.

Early life

Bazzi was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother. As his mother was a French teacher, Bazzi learned to speak French fluently alongside Arabic. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Australia after the Lebanese Civil War.

When immigrating to Australia, the Bazzis lost their immigration records. Bazzi was often bullied as a child as he did not initially speak English. His parents transferred him to a Catholic school, and he eventually learned English after a teacher decided to personally teach him. He was inspired to become an actor by that teacher.

Career

Bazzi started his acting career in his early 20s, in the early 2000s. As a child he was a fan of Star Wars and anime, so he was keen to work in the fantasy genre, however in the aftermath of 9/11 he found that he was pigeonholed as an Arab man, in terms of the way the industry viewed him.

His career began in theatre. After securing an agent, Bazzi started attending screen auditions in the early to mid-2000s, but based on the amount of rejection he experienced based on his ethnic background, he realised the theatre culture was more progressive than screen, allowing him a lot more casting scope and creative and cultural input. He continued to audition for screen roles regardless, and started to be cast in guest roles.

While touring Australia with a play called Food, Bazzi secured a part on the film Down Under – a black comedy based on the racial tensions in the wake of the real-life 2005 Cronulla riots. He starred alongside Alexander England, Damon Herriman, Justin Rosniak and Lincoln Younes.

After a decade of guest roles, supporting roles, and short films, Bazzi performed as part of a six month national tour of The Merchant of Venice with Bell Shakespeare, before finishing the tour early to film his first lead role in 2018 drama comedy movie The Merger.

Prior to leaving on a holiday, Bazzi auditioned for the recurring role of Nasir in season 2 of comedy drama series Mr Inbetween, and for a lead role as Ameer, a Syrian refugee in 2020 miniseries Stateless, both of which he secured and started filming on his return. In the latter series, he starred opposite Cate Blanchett, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Dominic West and Asher Keddie, and had to learn to speak Dari, an Afghan language. He was then was offered a part on The Commons, before having to fly to Timor-Leste to finish filming overseas scenes for Stateless.

In 2023, Bazzi was announced and appeared in several television projects including SBS' Erotic Stories, Total Control's final season, and the second season of Australian legal drama The Twelve. He also appeared in Australian/American co-produced horror film Late Night with the Devil. He was then named for legal thriller The Correspondent.