Tai Nguyen

Tai Tan Nguyen was born on 25 February, 1975 in Saigon, Vietnam. He is of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Chinese descent. His father Phat Tan Nguyen was a mechanic and his mother Tuyet Phuong Huynh ran the local cafe in the small village where his family was from in the Mekong Delta. In 1980, his family escaped Vietnam when he was five years old. On their voyage, they were attacked by Thai pirates whilst sailing across the South China Sea. They finally made safe harbour after surviving a storm that had threatened to smash their small fishing vessel against the cliffs. After one month in Palua Bidog, nicknamed "Hell Island" and three months in Kuala Lumpur refugee camps in Malaysia, they were sponsored by a Dutch Reform Church in Tasmania to start a new life in Australia. His first onscreen appearance as a child was in a documentary highlighting the plight of refugees for ABC network. He went on to attend a selective high school in Sydney called Fort Street where Australia's first prime minister came from. His parents separated when he was sixteen.His younger sister after having read an article in the newspaper about a new show coming out encouraged him to try out for it. This new show wanted someone that could play soccer and was of Asian descent. He figured that being paid to play soccer on TV wasn't such a bad deal so he went and met with Sandra Mckenzie the casting director. She liked his enthusiasm and energy and introduced him to the show runners Michael Jenkins (The Leaving of Liverpool) and Ben Gannon (The Boy From Oz). After a screen test with Alex Dimitriades (Heartbreak Kid), he was given the role of Jack Tran in Heartbreak High in 1994. This was a major turning point in his life. He realized he had a passion for acting after learning the craft from Nico Lathouris (Mad Max: Fury Road) on set and continued to improve his craft with private lessons and mentoring from some of Australia's leading acting coaches.Heartbreak High gained significant press in Australia at the time for its groundbreaking gritty portrayal of multiculturalism in Australian schools and was broadcast in over 25 countries. In 2021, Netflix invested in a reboot of the series because of it's huge fan base from around the world. After Heartbreak High, his second role in 1996 was a swimming athlete training for the Olympics in a television show called Sweat alongside Heath Ledger (Batman), Martin Henderson (Virgin River) and Ingrid Hornstra (McLeods Daughters). He trained with an ex-Olympian swimmer to perfect his technique.in 2001 his younger brother committed suicide with whom he was living with. His brother had leapt of Sydney Harbour Bridge, Japanese tourists found his brothers body on Hickson Road. This tragedy was a major devastation in his life as he was very close to his brother at the time and was trying to get him of his heroin addiction. His acting career floundered for a while before he resumed his passion for it. He did various jobs from salesman, waitering and kitchen hand work in between acting gigs.In 2017 he appeared in Blue Murder: Killer Cop alongside Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge!) in a two-part Australian television miniseries based on true events, produced by Seven Network. in 2019, he won Best Actor in a Sci-Fi short film called Zonter Park for the CWFA in the USA. in 2020 he moved to Tasmania with his wife Renate and their six year old son Joshua. During the Covid-19 lock down, he was involved in the only television production to be shot in Tasmania in 2020. The role was for a gay lover named Marcel in a web-series called The Tailings which was aired in 2021 on the SBS network. Show less «