Greek Australian actor Lex Marinos retraces his family history in the new Australian series of Who Do You Think You Are? 7.30pm Tuesday 30 April on SBS ONE.
For several decades Lex Marinos has embodied all that is so-called ‘ethnic’ on Australian screens, from the comedy Kingswood Country to the intense drama of The Slap.
Lex identifies strongly with his Greek heritage, growing up as ‘an outsider’ in an assimilationist White Australia era. He wonders if his predominantly Greek identity has overshadowed his grandmother’s Anglo-Celtic lineage. Celebrating the birth of his granddaughter in a traditionally Greek Australian family gathering, Lex is aware that the picture is incomplete.
“I think having a wog and convict background is interesting because for me it seems quintessentially what Australia is about,” he says of his background.
Lex journeys to a one-horse outback town on the trail of his revered Greek grandfather Tony and his Anglo-Scottish grandmother, Minnie. There he discovers that the strong moral principles espoused by his grandfather are founded on shaky ground. He also travels to colonial-era Tasmania to investigate an ancestor wrongly-accused of a terrible crime.
Who Do You Think You Are? is produced by Artemis International and Serendipity Productions for SBS.