Matt Whelan

Christchurch-raised Matt Whelan got his screen break in 2008‘s Show of Hands; but it was his role as the lovesick Brad on Go Girls that brought him a wider audience. Three award-nominated, starring roles in films followed: cross-cultural romance My Wedding and Other Secrets, travel drama Most Fun You Can Have Dying, and Radio Hauraki tale 3 Mile Limit. In 2017 he was Hugh Hefner in Amazon series American Playboy — before flying to Columbia to chase drug cartels, for Netflix hit Narcos. Since then he's featured in local TV drama The Gone, A Remarkable Place to Die and Under the Vines, and horror films The Tank and We Bury the Dead. 

I got it through my agent. I saw it and thought, perfect, this guy is tall and skinny and he has to speak a bit of Mandarin. Matt Whelan, on hearing about the male lead's requirements for 2011 movie My Wedding and Other Secrets