Joe Hasham
Joe Hasham is a Lebanese National, an Australian Citizen, and a proud Permanent Resident of his adopted home, Malaysia.Joe was born in Tripoli in the Lebanon on 4th September 1948. In August 1949, eleven months later, he arrived in Sydney, Australia; and in May of 1984, Joe completed his journey when he decided to venture to Malaysia, where he has lived ever since.
Joe completed his secondary schooling in Sydney attending De La Salle College, Marrickville. In 1968 he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Joe’s love of performing arts was nurtured in school, where, at the age of fourteen, he won the Best Actor award at the Genesian Drama Festival, a nationwide theatre competition.
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1962:
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At age 14 won the Best Actor Award in the Genesian Drama Festival
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| 1968: | Graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) |
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1969-70:
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Contracted to the National Theatre at the Perth Playhouse as Actor in Residence. Acted in over 12 productions including: Stanley in ‘Streetcar Named Desire’; Oswald Alving in Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’; Algernon in Oscar Wilde’s ‘Importance of Being Earnest’; Rawdon Crawley in ‘Vanity Fair’; and the title role in ‘The Real Inspector Hound’. It was during his time in Perth that Joe first started working with young people in theatre. |
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1971:
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Toured Australia and New Zealand for the Harry Wren Organisation and also shot the award winning film, ‘Toula-Three to Go’.
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1972-73:
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Leading Role in the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s comedy series, ‘Dad’s Army’ and several guest appearances on national TV drama series.
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1974-79:
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Leading Role in Number 96, the most popular television series in the history of Australian television. During this time also recorded an award-winning album and during filming breaks was able to return to his first love, theatre, where he continued working with young theatre hopefuls.
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1979-80:
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Leading Role in The Young Doctors for national television and started his now famous theatre workshop series.
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1980-84:
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Leading Role in the Sydney Theatre Company’s ‘The Sweat Proof Boy’.Leading Role in the Sydney Theatre Company’s ‘Mothers and Fathers’, which was eventually taken to the Adelaide Arts Festival where it broke all attendance records.Wrote, produced and directed the award winning documentary series ‘So You Want To Be A …’Produced, directed and starred in the award winning multi-cultural national variety programme, ‘Cabaret’ for SBS Australia.
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1984-89:
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Came to Malaysia to set up the country’s first privately owned post-production house; Also opened a commercial film production house, which eventually became one of the top production houses in the country, winning hundreds of advertising awards.
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1989-present
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Set up The Actors Studio (Malaysia) with his wife Faridah Merican and ran the first of his Acting for Beginners courses. His first class comprised the following notable Malaysian performing artists; Faridah Merican, Patrick Teoh, Fawziah Nawi, Leslie Dawson, Geoffrey Nicholson, Pang Tat Nam, Raymond Goh, Ramli Hassan, Tiara Jaquelina (then Jacqui Eu). Since then, Joe has been responsible for nurturing hundreds of aspiring actors, directors and writers.Set up the Malaysian Playwright Series, which is responsible for the development and nurturing of young Malaysian Playwrights.Set up the Young Directors Showcase, which is responsible for the development and nurturing of young Malaysian Directors.Directed countless productions over the last 22 years in English, Malay and Chinese.Joe has directed musicals, dance-dramas, and dramas.Joe, with his wife Faridah, was responsible for The Actors Studio, Dataran Merdeka (Lost to Floods); The Actors Studio, Bangsar; The Actors Studio, Green Hall (Penang); and the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (PentasSeni KL).
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Joe has been involved in the performing arts arena for 44 years. He has worked in film,television,radio,theatre and the recording industry. As testament to Joe’s talent, he has won awards in every area of endeavour; as an actor, director, writer and recording artist.