Hazem Shammas

Actor and artist Hazem Shammas' work is varied across an award winning stage and screen career and through his writing, producing and advocacy. He draws from 20 years experience working with major theatre companies across the country, being a creative director and producer with Poetry In Action in the small arts organisation and education sector and experimenting with independent works of performance utilizing poetry, movement, video and photography. His current work includes research on creating a dialogue between his Palestinian heritage and migrant experience, and the First Nations legacy in Australia. He continues to work as an actor and has recently become an Arts & Culture ambassador with Settlement Services International (SSI) to extend his refugee advocacy work specifically supporting new artistic enterprises. Winning a Logie award in 2018 for his work in Safe Harbour, Hazem has maintained a solid reputation as an outstanding actor across the stage and screen. His theatre performances, on productions with major theatre companies across Australia, include Counting and Cracking, Sami in Paradise, Atlantis, Mother Courage and Her Children, Scorched, Antigone, Paul, Gates of Egypt, Peribanez, Stuff Happens (Belvoir); Disgraced (Melbourne Theatre Company); Othello (State Theatre Company South Australia); Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Comedy of Errors, Macbeth (Bell Shakespeare); The Call (Griffin); Trustees, Criminology (Malthouse Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arts Radar); The Tribe and Buried City (UTP/Belvoir/Sydney Festival). His work in film comprises the features X, The Tumbler and Alex and Eve. Hazem's other screen credits include Safe Harbour, Underbelly, East West 101, At Home With Julia and All Saints. As well as Hungry Ghosts, this year, Hazem has worked on The Hunting, My Life is Murder, The Secrets She Keeps, Halifax and The Gloaming. His performance in Safe Harbour garnered a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Talent and an AACTA Award nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama