Ashley Zukerman (born 30 December 1983) is an Australian-American actor known for playing Dr. Charlie Isaacs on WGN America’s Manhattan, Senior Constable Michael Sandrelli in Australian drama series Rush, and Jesse Banks in the Australian political thriller The Code, for which he received an AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama in 2014. He has recently portrayed recurring roles in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor and Succession.
Early Life
Zukerman was born in Santa Monica, California, and moved to Melbourne with his family when he was two years old. He is the older brother of Science Vs. podcaster Wendy Zukerman. Zukerman attended Wesley College at the Glen Waverley campus and began a degree in Science and Engineering at Monash University before being accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts. His parents are Jewish.
Career
Graduating from the VCA in 2006, his professional career began in the theatre. He had a critically acclaimed role in The History Boys, directed by Peter Evans for the Melbourne Theatre Company. He then appeared in HBO’s war miniseries The Pacific, which premiered 14 March 2010 and also in Lowdown created by Adam Zwar and Amanda Brotchie. His Australian break came when he played Constable Michael Sandrelli on the series Rush for which he was nominated for a Logie award in the Most Outstanding New Talent category. In 2011, after his time on Rush, Zukerman joined the cast of the short-lived Steven Spielberg–produced sci-fi television series Terra Nova.
Zukerman then returned to the theatre working with director Eamon Flack at the Belvoir Theatre Company in As You Like It playing Orlando, and then two years later on Angels in America playing Joe Pitt. Angels in America went on to win Best Play at the 2014 Helpmann Awards.
He went on to play socially dysfunctional genius hacker Jesse Banks opposite Dan Spielman in the Australian political thriller The Code created by Shelley Birse. The show received huge national and international acclaim and 10 AACTA Award nominations, out of which it won six including Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama for Zukerman.
Early in 2014, Zukerman won the role of ambitious wunderkind Dr. Charlie Isaacs in the WGN America original drama Manhattan created by filmmaker Sam Shaw and directed by Thomas Schlamme. In 2016, Zukerman was cast in the recurring role of Peter MacLeish on the ABC political drama series Designated Survivor, which premiered in the autumn of the same year.
In 2018, Zukerman portrayed a recurring role on the HBO series Succession. He will next star in the horror film Fear Street and appear on the Hulu miniseries A Teacher, with both projects slated for a 2020 release. It was announced in March 2020 that Zukerman was has been cast to portray Robert Langdon in the NBC drama pilot Langdon, which is based on Dan Brown’s 2009 thriller novel The Lost Symbol.
