Actor, Writer, Director and Producer Harvey Zielinski is a two-time Heath Ledger Scholarship finalist, a Casting Guild of Australia Rising Star Award recipient, and was the Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre graduate ensemble member for 2018. As an actor, Harvey has worked for legendary directors such as Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) and Emma Freeman (The Newsreader) and opposite stars such as Don Cheadle (Avengers), Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns), Markella Kavenagh (TLOTR: The Ring of Power), Belinda McClory (The Matrix), Bojana Novakovic (I, Tonya), Kat Stewart (Offspring), Kate Box (Wentworth) and Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd).
Harvey is best known as series lead Charlie in White Fever (ABC), series lead Abel in Catherine Hardwicke’s (Twilight) sci-fi series Don’t Look Deeper, and series regular Gez Rahme in Amazon Prime original comedy series Deadloch. Other screen credits include Love Me (Warner Bros), Spreadsheet (Paramount+), Metrosexual (9Now), My First Summer (STAN), Why Are You Like This (ABC/Netflix) and Get Krack!n (ABC).
Harvey’s stage credits include Nick in Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf (directed by Sarah Goodes for Red Stitch, featuring Kat Stewart, Emily Goddard and David Whiteley, nominated for Best Ensemble in the 2024 Greenroom awards), Malthouse Theatre Company’s production Because the Night (Matt Lutton), cavemxn (Anthropocene Theatre Company), Suddenly Last Summer (Red Stitch), The Antipodes (Red Stitch) and Hir (Red Stitch).
Harvey’s screenwriting has been supported by ABC’s Fresh Start Fund, Imagine Impact, Screen Australia, the ‘Originate’ features initiative and the 17th Annual Ontario Creates Film Financing Forum at the Toronto International Film Festival (2022). He is a Malthouse Theatre commissioned playwright and a writer on ABC comedy series White Fever. He is a regular fixture in Australian writers’ rooms. Harvey’s debut feature film Sweet Milk Lake was recently fully financed and greenlit by the inaugural Originate Features initiative, a partnership between VicScreen, SBS, Arenamedia and Screen Australia. As well as being the writer of Sweet Milk Lake, Harvey is also directing, starring and producing.
Harvey was the Director’s Attachment for The Newsreader S2 (Emma Freeman) and the Assistant Director for Right Now (Red Stitch). He just directed a television campaign for the Victorian Government.
Harvey is represented by Mollison Keightley Management in Australia and Artists First in the US. He holds O1 visa status for the USA.
“A joy to watch…” – Time Out (Hir)
“The lead actors are all fantastic, especially Zielinski…(His) performance as a betrayed best friend is an exceptional one.” – Cinema Australia
“Achingly vulnerable…” – The Age (186,000)
“Remarkable work…” – Australian Arts Review (Hir)
“Zielinski hovers quite perfectly between confidence and uncertainty…” – In Review (Hir)
“A killer cast…Zielinski and Boesen are a riot…” – Time Out (Suddenly Last Summer)
“The wattage emanating from the cast is often electrifying…Zielinski nails the slick, colourless swagger of Nick, but he’s also able to convey a sense of wistfulness and self-awareness that isn’t necessarily on the page.” – The Guardian (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“He is especially good – sly, ingratiating and likeable while never wholly trustworthy…” – Australian Book Review (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“Best on the night…”– Australian Arts Review (Because the Night)
“Act II’s opening scene between Nick and George is a standout…Zielinski’s subtle naturalism adds a magnetic believability…” – Limelight (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“You forget they are acting; the quartet are that good…Zielinski’s Nick has the cocky pugilism required…it is fascinating to watch the two men go at it.” – Theatre Matters (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“Stunning performances…Zielinski as Honey’s husband, Nick, is particularly well cast.” – Stage Whispers (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“Zielinski’s spunky, naive and narcissistic Max is both adorable and relatable.” – Daily Review (Hir)
“Max is played splendidly by Harvey Zielinski. Of all the characters Max is the most changed…the acting is outstanding…” – Arts Hub (Hir)
“So compelling…Zielinski and McLelland nail the remorseless banter…” – The Age (cavemxn)
“A dignified performance with heart and dimension…” – Theatre Press (Hir)
“A beautifully distilled account of forming one’s identity, where what was left unsaid sung loud.” – Arts Hub (Gender Euphoria)
“This production deserves to sell out…fully inhabited and emotionally volatile performances…” – The Age (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“…pitch-perfect…anchored in the strength of its performances…” – ArtsHub (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)
“A cast that could not be better” – Stage Whispers (The Antipodes)
“An incredible pool of talent…breathtaking” – Weekend Notes (Suddenly Last Summer)
“…a cracking theatrical coup…stunning performances…” – Stage Whispers (Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf)