Deniz Akdeniz

Deniz Akdeniz — Biography

Deniz Akdeniz was born on 16 May 1990 in Melbourne to a Turkish family that had emigrated from Izmir. He began acting at age eight, following his older brother into drama classes that had originally been meant to help the brother integrate socially, and trained at TAFTA, NIDA, St Martins Youth Theatre and Melbourne Acting Studio; before turning to acting professionally he competed in mixed martial arts and became a Victorian jiu-jitsu champion.

He made his screen debut in the 2005 film Puppy, then played Raff on the Disney series As the Bell Rings from 2007 to 2009. His leading role as Homer in Tomorrow, When the War Began earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 2010 Inside Film Awards. He went on to appear in I, Frankenstein and The Water Diviner in 2014, played Aladdin on Once Upon a Time from 2016 to 2017, and Robb Wellens on Siren in 2020. From 2022 he played Max on The Flight Attendant and appeared in Interceptor; in 2023 came You Hurt My Feelings and Dumb Money, and he currently plays Lev "Oz" Ozdil on High Potential. In 2024 he married his long-term partner, American actress Riley Dandy, and now lives in Los Angeles.