The man Waleed Aly referred to as Mustafa in his Gold Logie acceptance speech on Sunday night has been outed by Daily Mail Australia as Tyler De Nawi, the 27-year-old actor from Sydney who plays Elias in the Nine sitcom Here Come the Habibs.
In his speech, Aly told how "someone who is in this room, and I'm not going to use the name they use in the industry, came up to me, introduced themselves and said to me, 'I really hope you win. My name is Mustafa. But I can't use that name because I won't get a job'."
This year's Logie Awards were hailed as the most diverse ever, but Aly's speech pointed to the fact that barriers remain.
De Nawi is a recent arrival on the dramatic landscape. In February, he told SBS that he won his role as drug dealer Karim in the four-part drama The Principal after "my second ever audition".
However, he added that "not many auditions come through, being ethnic, but it's getting better".
De Nawi's acting manager Anthony Kidd, of Benchmark Creative, agreed with that assessment.
"We've always encouraged talent of ethnic diversity, and over the last few years we've found that program makers are looking to cast and even to create roles for actors of ethnic background," he said.
"I think the general public is more open to watching ethnically diverse shows, and that creates opportunities for everyone."
