Ashley Zukerman

Zukerman was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Ingrid (née Schwarz) and Moshe Zukerman, and moved to Melbourne with his family when he was two years old.^[1] His family is Jewish;^[2] his father is from Israel, whereas his mother is from Peru. His parents also spoke Hebrew during his childhood.^[3] He is the older brother of Science Vs. podcaster Wendy Zukerman. He attended Wesley College at the Glen Waverley campus and began a degree in Science and Engineering at Monash University before being accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts.

Graduating from the VCA in 2006^{[citation needed]}, he began his professional career in the theatre. He had a critically acclaimed role in The History Boys,^[4] directed by Peter Evans for the Melbourne Theatre Company. He then appeared in HBO's war miniseries The Pacific, which premiered 14 March 2010 and also in Lowdown created by Adam Zwar and Amanda Brotchie. His Australian break came when he played Constable Michael Sandrelli on the series Rush for which he was nominated for a Logie award in the Most Outstanding New Talent category. In 2011, after his time on Rush, Zukerman joined the cast of the short-lived Steven Spielberg–produced sci-fi television series Terra Nova.

Zukerman then returned to the theatre working with director Eamon Flack at the Belvoir Theatre Company in As You Like It playing Orlando, and then two years later in Angels in America playing Joe Pitt. Angels in America won Best Play at the 2014 Helpmann Awards.^[5]

He played socially dysfunctional genius hacker Jesse Banks opposite Dan Spielman in the Australian political thriller The Code created by Shelley Birse. The show received huge national and international acclaim and 10 AACTA Award nominations, out of which it won six including Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama for Zukerman.^[6]

Early in 2014, Zukerman won the role of ambitious wunderkind Dr. Charlie Isaacs in the WGN America original drama Manhattan created by filmmaker Sam Shaw and directed by Thomas Schlamme.^[7] In 2016, Zukerman was cast in the recurring role of Peter MacLeish on the ABC political drama series Designated Survivor, which premiered in the autumn of the same year.^[8]

In 2018, Zukerman had a recurring role on the HBO series Succession, and in 2020, appeared as the title character's husband on the Hulu miniseries A Teacher.^[9] In 2021, he stars in the Fear Street horror trilogy that streams on Netflix, beginning with Fear Street Part One: 1994.^[10][11] It was announced in March 2020 that Zukerman has also been cast to portray Robert Langdon in the NBC drama pilot Langdon, which is based on Dan Brown's 2009 thriller novel The Lost Symbol.^[12]

Film edit

Television edit

• As You Like It (2011) – Orlando^[18]
• This Is Our Youth (2009) – Warren^[19]
• B.C. (2009) – Joseph^[20]
• The Hypocrite (2008) – Valére^[21]
• The History Boys (2007) – Timms^[22]

Accolades edit

• Ashley Zukerman at IMDb