Nikolai nikolaeff biography examples

*This interview took place prior to the current SAG-AFTRA strike*

Melbourne-born actor Nikolai Nikolaeff will be the first to tell you he’s aware he gives off “villain” vibes; “It’s got resting “I’m going to kill you” face,” as he states.  And it’s because of such that he’s carved an international career for himself in a variety of less-than-heroic roles, ranging from such acclaimed series as Daredevil and Stranger Things, to his latest big screen encounter in Dracula: The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

As the film sets sail across cinema screens the globe over (you can read our review here), Peter Gray spoke with Nikolaeff about working on the gothic horror film, how it felt to know he was being overseen by one Steven Spielberg, and why he’s okay being dubbed “the poor man’s Willem Dafoe.”

Congratulations on the film.  I like to go into films knowing as little as possible, so it was refreshing to see a Dracula tale told in a much different manner than we’ve seen thus far.

I think there’s definitely a movement to, you know, put a modern spin on the classic tale, and this one, funnily enough, is not really doing that.  The word “classic” comes to mind with this film.  Even the way it’s shot, the way it’s cast…and in the story itself it’s a really kind of beautiful and classic story.  It’s based off Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this chapter called “The Captain’s Log”, and that chapter is actually very, very short.  It’s a few pages of the Captain writing down how (his) journey disintegrated into the madness and what happened to (his crew).  I think because it was so minimal, it really kind of let the reader’s imagination g

Nikolai Nikolaeff is set for an eventful year. The Australian actor, who has found success in portraying Mr. Azarov in Netflix's critically acclaimed mystery drama 'The O.A,' as well as Russian mob boss Vladimir Ranskahov in 'Daredevil,' David Coleman in 2013 comedy-drama 'Camp,' and Leo '2Dads' Kosov-Meyer in Australian drama 'Sea Patrol,' will play a starring role as a Chechen/Jihadi alongside Olivia Munn in the upcoming season of History channel's Navy Seal-centered drama 'Six.'

He reveals there's much more to his character, Tamerlin Shishoni than initially meets the eye and an interesting backstory that may or may not have made the cut. "Tamerlin Shishoni is how we know him by his official name but there are two other names he goes by. When we first meet him he's working for the CIA with Gina Cline (Olivia Munn). He is known by the name John."

"I don't know whether they've left it in or not but one of the Seal guys goes 'Did you pick your name, John?' to which he replies that he did because it's the second most popular name in America. The Seal presses, 'Why number two, why is that?' and he's told that it's because number two always tries harder."

Nikolai is impressed with how much thought was put into the background and development of Shishoni. "I think that's a really cool insight into the character and how he thinks. Instead of being number one, he consciously picks two because they work harder and strive for more to become the number one," he says.

"We see his evolution, beginning from a low-level fixer who has some really traumatic and heartbreaking things happen to him, and who is effectively betrayed and he has these really awful things happen, to his eventual rise to become who we know as 'The Prince'," he continues. 

The typical, clichéd gangster-type are now shunned for an anti-hero with a tragic past that

With its fifth and current episode “Heat Wave,”  the new show Camp on NBC, officially endeared itself to me. After enjoying its premiere episode, its next few episodes had been hit (“Capture the Flag” took me back to those joyously raucous Color War battles we used to have when I was at camp) or miss (“The Mixer”) for me. “Heat Wave” was riveting, raunchy fun, setting up a few more love triangles and potentially zesty scenarios for the near future.

Filmed in Australia and filled with Aussie actors doing their best American accents, this show is about a camp called Little Otter Family Camp and the staff and campgoers that reside there in the summers.

At the show’s core is Rachel Griffiths’s Mac, the camp’s director who inherits the camp from her deceased Dad and is suffering through a divorce with her ex-husband. Little Otter is seemingly always on the verge of economic collapse as it competes with the country club-type camp nearby called Ridgefield, helmed by the evil sometime love interest of Mac’s, Roger. Spicy, no?

Of course, most of our time is spent with the campers and staffers at Little Otter. One camper is Buzz, Mac’s son and my favorite character on the show. He’s like a Seth Cohen but without scruples. Then there’s Kip’s buddy Kip (Tom Green, but not the one you’re thinking of), an outcast and a new camper, who is hiding a history of fighting cancer. Kip secretly loves Marina, another outcast and new camper. Next we have Sarah (Dena Kaplan) and Robbie (Tim Pocock), two impossibly good looking staffers who split their time between keeping the young campers in line and making out. Then there’s Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff), a burnt-out former baseball star who now works as chief staffer/handyman at the camp. There are more, but we’d be here a while.

This show has so many couples, should-be couples, and almost couples. If you’d pleas