Tyler De Nawi

De Nawi was born in Sydney, Australia, to Zena and Ahmed, both Arabic teachers who migrated to Sydney from Lebanon in the 1970s during the civil war. Born into a conservative Muslim household, De Nawi was raised in Riverwood, New South Wales.[2] His father introduced him to the figures who became his biggest inspirations: Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, and Elvis.

De Nawi attended many different schools, including Hanan's Road Public School, Sir Joseph Banks High School, James Busby High School, and Cecil Hills High School. He graduated from Punchbowl Boys High School. With a love for movies and fighting, his interests outside of school fell more with martial arts, beginning with Hapkido. He discovered capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the age of 15. Continuing Capoeira for over 10 years, he also trained in gymnastics tumbling, and learned the Brazilian-Portuguese language. At the age of 17 he began performing professionally through Australia, China and the Asia Pacific. The progression of his skill as an acrobat introduced him to the greater community, evolving his craft with elements of parkour.

He was cast in the action-thriller short film Hunt For Hiroshi by 9Lives Films, and attached himself to the production as a producer, discovering his interests in film and cinema, thereafter continuing his study in drama.

Upon graduating drama school, he was cast in an original Australian miniseries, The Principal, in the role of Karim Ahmed in the high school crime drama loosely based on De Nawi's home district of Punchbowl/Bankstown.

De Nawi returned to Australia to take on his most well-known role of Elias Habib on the Original Nine Network Television production of Here Come the Habibs in 2016. De Nawi and this program became a focus of debate around the 2016 Australian Logie Awards when one of the winners, Waleed Aly, dedicated his win to an actor who had been forced to change his given name, Mustafa, to get work on Australian television.[3] It shortly came to light that this actor was De Nawi, who then wrote an essay for The Age describing the difficulties he had had landing auditions and jobs until he changed his first name. He pointed to the "irony in the fact that after I changed my name to Tyler I landed roles as Karim Ahmed (Syrian-Australian) in The Principal and Elias Habib (Lebanese-Australian) in Here Come the Habibs. Especially since my own heritage includes both Lebanese and Syrian ancestry."[4]

Deciding to continue his focus on martial arts training, he began kickboxing in 2016, competing and judging in the WAKO Championship. He was then cast as a boxer in the SBS miniseries On the Ropes, playing Hayder “The Hammer” Al-Amir, middleweight champion.

De Nawi has continued to branch out with his craft, moving to Los Angeles to pursue his creative career.