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Sotiris Tzelios is an Australian actor known for his extensive work in television and film, working with award winning directors Taika Waititi in Time Bandits (2024), Warwick Thornton Sweet Country (2017) starring Sam Neill and Bryan Brown, and with Michael Rymer on Fires (2021).
Growing up in a Greek family as a first generation Aussie, Sotiri has always known what it is to play a part. "You always get a sense that you are never Greek enough, or Aussie enough, and we also have a bit of Austrian from Arnold Schwarzenegger's home town of Graz," he jokes about his enormous family where everyone, anywhere is probably his cousin. So Sotiri became good at moulding himself for the mood, fitting in everywhere, and sometimes no-where as he took off to travel the world for a few years in his late 20s.
Whether he was brick-laying in London, teaching English as a second language in Austria, or dominating club culture with his DJ work in the underground bars of Melbourne or the Greek Islands, Sotiri has been able to seamlessly integrate, indulge and embrace the multi-faceted aspect of human existence, while also finding a place in the sun for himself.
And he can put on a few killer accents to boot. "I never felt more Aussie than when I lived in Greece," he jokes when he talks about his Aussie accent shining through as he attempted to speak in what he thought was his native Greek tongue. It was while he explored the history of Athens and managing his very 'Aussie Greekness', that he felt truly inspired by the music, art, theatre, history, culture and food of life.
"Everyone is a character, everyone has a story." "That's when I realised I'd already had so many amazing parts in life, but I hadn't really known it in career sense," he said.
Sotiri continued to chase endless summers, spending six months at a time running kite-surfing schools on the Greek islands in Europe, Tunisia in Africa and Fiji and Australia in the South Pacific.
Returning to Melbourne and meeting his now wife, he engaged in theatre, took bit parts in movies, accepted commercial MC work at events, booked TVC's and worked on set as an extra, because by then he'd realised where he should be.
Sotiri has lived the high life and also done the hard yards, he knows the many seasons of life. It is this understanding - this ability to tap into the nerve-cell of all that humans are and indulge the rawness of existence - that enables him to transform into any character on set.
He now lives on the road in Australia in a box truck converted into a tiny home with his wife and chihuahua.
