Actor/writer/director/producer Harvey Zielinski has consistently been recognised as one of Australia’s brightest emerging talents. He is a two-time Heath Ledger Scholarship finalist (2018 and 2021), a Casting Guild of Australia Rising Star Award recipient (2018), 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 Abel in Catherine Hardwicke’s (Twilight) sci-fi series Don’t Look Deeper, and as 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 also plays a lead role in the ABC series White Fever (due for release in 2024).
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), 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 VicScreen/Arenamedia/SBS ‘Originate’ program and the 17th Annual Ontario Creates Film Financing Forum at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022. He is a Malthouse Theatre commissioned playwright and a writer on ABC comedy series White Fever. He was recently part of a writer's room adapting a best-selling novel to limited series. 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. Harvey is the writer, director and lead actor of Sweet Milk Lake.
Harvey was the Director’s Attachment for The Newsreader S2 (Emma Freeman) and the Assistant Director for Right Now (Red Stitch). He just directed his first TVC.
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
“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
“Remarkable work…” – Australian Arts Review
“Zielinski hovers quite perfectly between confidence and uncertainty” – In Review
“Zielinski and Boesen are a riot” – Time Out
“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
“He is especially good – sly, ingratiating and likeable while never wholly trustworthy – in the opening scene of Act Two” – Australian Book Review
“Best on the night…”– Australian Arts Review
“Act II’s opening scene between Nick and George is a standout…Zielinski’s subtle naturalism adds a magnetic believability” – Limelight
“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
“Stunning performances…Zielinski as Honey’s husband, Nick, is particularly well cast. His very affable appearance allows him to turn his character’s naivety into deceit with the art of a grifter.” – Stage Whispers
“Zielinski’s spunky, naive and narcissistic Max is both adorable and relatable.” – Daily Review