Nicholas Brown (born 1 January 1980) is an Australian actor, screenwriter, playwright, singer and songwriter.
Early 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. Whilst at NHSPA he represented the school in various drama and music festivals including OnStage and was elected School Captain in 1997.
In 1998, Brown was accepted into the 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.
Career
Film and television
Brown's first on-screen role was as a teenager in the original series of Heartbreak High.
Some of Brown's guest roles include White Collar Blue (2003), Home and Away (in both 2007 and 2013), Heartbreak High, Drama School, City Homicide (2010), Packed to the Rafters (2012), Mr & Mrs Murder (2013) and Anh Do's Channel 7 comedy pilot Lucky Dragon. He also had a recurring role on The Cooks from 2004 to 2005.
He appeared in Australian feature films The Characters, Temptation in 2003, A Man's Gotta Do in 2004.
Shortly after moving to Mumbai from Sydney in 2007, Brown was cast opposite Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan as villain Tony Grover in the film Kites, directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Rakesh Roshan. The film was re-cut for an English audience by Brett Ratner and was released worldwide as Kites The Remix. Kites was released worldwide in May 2010. Brown lived in Mumbai on and off until 2015, where he was typecast as the villain for several years, including in Unindian, opposite Brett Lee in 2015. Other Bollywood film credits to his name include Love You to Death, Prattichaya and Sedition.
Brown played real life heroin drug smuggler Supahaus Chowdury in the 2011 Australian television show Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away. From 2015 to 2019, he appeared in the TV shows The Code, The Letdown, Harrow and Netflix series The Unlisted. He played the lead role of Sid in the film Laka and was cast as a regular presenter on children's series Play School.
In 2021 Brown played Sigrid Thornton's love interest Dr. Omar Sebastian in the Channel 9 drama series Amazing Grace, Miles in the Stan film Christmas on the Farm and appeared in the drama series Wakefield.
In 2022, Brown played the role of Rahul in U.S. miniseries Joe vs. Carole (based on Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin), Paul in Channel 9's drama series After the Verdict, Hamish in the Netflix film A Perfect Pairing and Chubba in season 2 of Tim Minchin's Upright.
In 2023, Brown played one of the lead roles Paul Kemble in the ABC musical series In Our Blood and Derek Stevens in season 2 of The PM's Daughter. In 2024 he starred opposite Asher Keddie and David Wenham in the drama series Fake and played Makrand in the Indian Australian film Sahela/Companion.
In 2025 Brown played Gall in Alex Proyas's film R.U.R.
Theatre On stage, Brown played villain Nikhil Madhvani (opposite Shilpa Shetty) in Miss Bollywood, which toured Germany and the UK including London's West End. He appeared in 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 The Wind in the Willows, and Martin Crimp's Fewer Emergencies at the Old Fitzroy Theatre. He also performed in the 2005 Hi-5 Space Magic – World Tour.
In 2010 Brown performed in several international festivals, including representing NIDA at the UNESCO 2007 drama schools festival in Transylvania, Romania, playing Orestes in Aeschylus's Ancient Greek tragedy The Oresteian Trilogy. He also appeared in Project 88 Art Gallery in Mumbai, Doctrine: How to Survive Under Siege in Brussels, Belgium, for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts (2008) and Rehaan Engineer's Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill (2009). He then appeared in three new plays (The New Black, Tilt and Student Body) at the 2010 Australian National Play Festival in Brisbane.
In 2015 Brown played the role of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar directed by Alyque Padamsee in Mumbai. He also played Lumiere in Disney India's Beauty and the Beast which toured to Mumbai and Delhi.
From 2016 to 2019 Brown appeared in the plays Lighten Up at Griffin Theatre in Sydney, Still Point Turning and The Long Forgotten Dream for Sydney Theatre Company and the Helpmann Award-winning play Counting and Cracking for Belvoir Theatre Company at Sydney Festival.
From 2019 to 2020 he appeared as Kevin J in the smash hit stage musical Come from Away at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. In May 2021, he played Petruchio in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew with Queensland Theatre (in the Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane), directed by Damien Ryan. In 2022 Brown played Edmond Rostand opposite Angie Milliken in Queensland Theatre's production of Bernhardt / Hamlet. In 2024 Brown appeared on stage in the Belvoir Theatre production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.
Writing Nicholas wrote episode 12 of the Netflix/ ABC Me series The Unlisted, and episode 16 of the ABC Kids TV show The Wonder Gang. He co-wrote his first play Lighten Up, which premiered at Sydney's Griffin Theatre. Lighten Up was published by Currency Press, and a monologue from the play was included in the 2016 edition of the book Contemporary Australian Monologues for Men.
He co-wrote the play Lost In Books, which was part of Sydney Festival, and True West for the National Theatre of Parramatta.
Brown's play Sex Magick was produced by Griffin Theatre in 2023. Published by Currency Press, it won the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the 2024 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
In 2024 Brown wrote an autobiographical chapter in the book Growing Up Indian In Australia published by Black Inc. Books.
Brown did some production work on an Indo-Australian Bollywood film in 2010, with Olivia Newton-John.
Music In 2011, Brown lived in Los Angeles where he was the lead singer of funk band 'Knuckle Funk' in 2011–2012. The group became a duo a few years later and released two singles renaming themselves 'Luck Now'. The first single "I Spent My Rent On A Record" was released in 2015 and was co-written by Brown. It received regular airplay on MTV Indies and VH1 in India. He also co-wrote and recorded lead vocals for the song "Unpredictable (The Robot Song)" in 2013. As a singer/songwriter, Brown also recorded the album "Big Score" in 2005 with his Australian disco funk band The Modernists in 2004 and performed at Australian venues such as The Basement and The Metro. The album received radio airplay on Sydney radio stations FBI and 2SER.
In 2005, Brown was the male understudy for the children's internationally recognised pop group Hi-5 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. In 2007, before moving to Mumbai, Brown wrote and recorded an unreleased album with the electro rock duo "Listen Like Thieves".
In 2023, Brown released the Italo disco inspired song "Up And Coming" which received radio airplay on Radio One in India, on ABC Radio and FBI. The song was accompanied by an animated music video.
In February 2025, Brown released the Bollywood inspired dance song "Strange Shadow" produced by Sydney DJ Dave Winnel. The sultry music video starred Betty Grumble, was directed by David Charley and choreographed by Shaun Parker. Two remixes of the song were also released by Luke Million and Mind Electric.
In March 2025, Brown released the Nu-Disco dance song "Don't Mind Me" which was accompanied by an animated music video.
Radio presenter From 2012 to 2014 Brown was hosting SBS Radio's South Asian – a radio programme for Bollywood, Bhangra and Desi pop music playing on Australian digital radio, online and mobile
Community work Brown's charity work has included: 2013 – Performing 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 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 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
Personal life Nicholas's life story has been documented on the ABC Conversations (radio program) with Sarah Kanowski - A wild Bollywood adventure — from Sydney to Mumbai and back again.
Acting credits
Film
As actor Year Title Role Notes 2003 The Man on the Boat Driver Short film 2004 A Man's Gotta Do Young Doctor Feature film 2007 Don't Panic Abe Short film 2009 Bani Ibrahim Ghazali Short film 2010 Kites Tony Feature film 2010 After the Credits Actor Short film2011 The 5 Kris Short film Random 8 Michael Henderson2012 Love You to Death John Feature film The Shadower In Dani Short film Project Top Clown Eric Short film 2013Pink Balloons Reg Short film 2014 Time 2 Settle Host Video 2014 Imperfectly Frank Frank Short film 2015 Moose Jimmy Short film UnIndian Samir Feature film 2017 Dance Academy: The Movie Tutor Stuart The Casting Game Ted Khana Khanzana Gaurav Short film 2018 Laka 2019 Martha the Monster Kevin Short film 2020 Awake Nikhil Short film 2022 The Perfect Pairing Hamish Clerks III Car Sex Selfie Snapper Feature film 2023 Companion Makrand 2025 Jimpa Mr Mason Feature film TBA Sedition Shiva TBA Final Trap John
As crew Year Title Role Notes 2011 The End Directors Assistant 2011 The 5 Assistant to Producer Short film 2012 Love You to Death Directors Assistant Feature film 2012 The Shadower in 3D Directors Assistant Short film 2017 The Tribes of Palos Verdes Production Assistant Feature film
Television
As actor Year Title Role Notes 1983 All the Rivers Run Gordon TV series, 2 episodes 2001 Life Support Guest TV series 2003 Temptation Sachin TV movie White Collar Blue Damien Lewis TV series 2004 The Cooks Sachin (main role) TV series, episodes 1–13 2007–13 Home and Away Mark Davidson / Padley TV series2010 Lucky Dragon Ranjit TV pilot City Homicide Sanjay Roshan TV series 2011 Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away Supahaus Chowdury TV movie 2012 Packed to the Rafters Yuppie TV series 2012 Home and Away Dr Padley TV series 2013 The Elegant Gentleman's Guide to Knife Fighting Xavier TV series Mr & Mrs Murder Dt Mukajee TV series Cha Do Ajay TV series, 2 episodes 2014 The Casuals Rezwan TV series, 2 episodes 2016 The Code Bailey TV series, 1 episode 2017 The Letdown Sorab TV series, 1 episode 2018 Harrow Peter Sharma TV series, 1 episode 2019The Unlisted Rahul Sharma TV series, 14 episodes2021 Wakefield Kiran TV series, 3 episodes Amazing Grace Omar Sebastian TV series, 8 episodes Christmas on the Farm Miles TV movie2022 Joe vs. Carole Rohul TV series, 1 episode After the Verdict Paul TV miniseries Upright Chubba TV series, 5 episodes2023 In Our Blood Paul Kemble TV series, 4 episodes The PM's Daughter Mr Derek Stevens TV series, 8 episodes NCIS: Sydney Quarter Master Rennie TV series, 1 episode 2024 Fake Anton TV series, 8 episodes
As writer