Born in Syria, Jad moved to Australia at the age of eight and later settled in Canberra. Growing up, he was a fiercely competitive basketball and soccer player, pursuing sport at a high level throughout his teens. After finishing school, he built and ran a successful cleaning business, but at eighteen, despite having no prior experience in the arts, he chose to leave the business in the hands of his best friend and move to Sydney. Drawn by the search for something that would challenge him and unlock deeper layers of humanity within himself and encouraged by a close friend to audition for drama school and follow his passion for movie-watching, Jad found his path at Actors Centre Australia.
During his time at ACA, Jad has played Roy Cohn in Angels in America, a character that demanded both ferocity and vulnerability. Taken on the role of Fred in Edward Bond’s Saved, Menelaus in States of Decay, Barney in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Borkin in Ivanov, Shamraev in The Seagull, Bob in The Realistic Joneses, and Richard III in Richard III, each role offering new dimensions of humour, tragedy, and complexity.
Jad’s love of acting on stage is inseparable from his love of film, with the works of Paul Thomas Anderson and Martin Scorsese, and the artistry of Denzel Washington, Cillian Murphy, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Al Pacino inspiring his fascination with human behaviour and storytelling. As he graduates, he looks forward to building a career dedicated to bold, challenging work that provokes thought, sparks conversation, and connects deeply with audiences. Known for his relentless work ethic, Jad is committed to giving his all, to himself, his collaborators, and those who watch the stories he helps bring to life.
