Kayvan Novak believes opportunities for "ethnic actors" are "narrow".
The ‘Fonejacker’ star has confessed that while he’s experienced huge success with some of his parts in films and TV shows, he thinks there are only a limited number of roles that he’d be considered for.
He said: "As an ethnic actor I still feel I can’t be in ‘Downton Abbey’ or in period dramas. The opportunities for me as an actor are narrow, but I’m lucky enough to have people like [writers] Neil [Webster] and Ben [Palmer] creating roles for me that have nothing to do with where I’m from."
The 36-year-old star believes he’d be more likely to find varied roles in the United States but thinks that’s for the wrong reasons.
He explained: "Look at ‘The Wire’, for example – one of the most amazing shows out of America, and the two leads are English … I think that’s them thinking the best trained actors come from the UK, and the prettiest Australia."
Kayvan also confessed that when he first started out as an actor he quickly grew tired of being cast in what he calls "brown parts".
He added to Radio Times magazine: "I had a niche. And my niche was that I was brown. So it’s like, great, I get to go up for all these ‘brown parts’. I call them ‘brown parts’ because that’s what they are. That’s not to be resentful because I loved playing those parts – I got to meet so many cool actors. [But] playing the terrorists, the pimps, the doctors – it got to a point where I wanted more and I thought if I’m going to make it in this industry I can’t keep doing these parts because I’m just repeating myself."
Kayvan Novak thinks there are minimal opportunities for ‘ethnic actors’
