Dear 1990’s,
We’d like our quality after-school programming back, please.
Ask anyone in their 30s what they remember about their high school years and they’d probably list the following things – tencil jeans, Steve Madden slides, butterfly clips, the Spice Girls and Heartbreak High.
Heartbreak High started out as a spin-off of the 1993 Aussie movie The Heartbreak Kid, and it soon became the TV show that defined a whole generation of teenagers.
It was a time when long greasy hair and eyebrow rings reigned supreme and if you didn’t like someone you just told them to “rack off”.
All the guys wanted to be Drazic and all the girls wanted to be with Drazic. And we all honestly thought we’d be living in a converted warehouse with all our friends by the time we hit year 12.
The show also launched the careers of some of Australia’s best actors, musicians and TV hosts.
Here’s a rundown of what your favourite Heartbreak High characters have been doing since they left the show:
Callan Mulvey
If you're a woman over 30, the name Bogdan Drazic probably still does a lil' something something for you.
Drazic was the ultimate bad boy that every teenage girl wanted to save/torment her parents with/plaster her bedroom with posters of.
New Zealand-born actor Callan Mulvey, now 42, played the role of the resident bad boy between 1997 and 1999.
After finally completing his HSC, Mulvey landed a role in the Australian movie Thunderstruck.
But then the actor was involved in a horrific car crash near Byron Bay on New Year's Eve, 2003. He lost one of his eyes, underwent numerous surgeries, and had 17 titanium plates inserted in his face to repair the damage from the crash.
"I thought it was curtains for me at the time. A whole midsection of my face collapsed, I got cut ear to ear over the top of my head, my scalp got pulled down, and they rebuilt my face," he once told Kyle and Jackie O.
He then stared in a whole lot of homegrown Aussie dramas including Underbelly, Rush, and Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms.
These days, Drazic Mulvey is based in LA. He's stared in a bunch of Hollywood blockbusters including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zero Dark Thirty, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Also ladies - he's married (be still our beating hearts).
Ada Nicodemou
OK, let's all not pretend that we don't know where Ada's been for the past 17 years. She's been breaking hearts and making milkshakes ~ that no one actually ever drinks ~ in Summer Bay.
The Greek-born actress played the role of Katerina Ioannou between 1994 and 1997. After that she landed a role in Breakers, before taking on her career-defining role as Leah Patterson-Baker in Home and Away.
Nicodemou's also spoken candidly about the stillbirth death of her second son, Harrison, in 2014. Nicodemou separated from her husband, Chrys Xipolitas, in 2015 after eight years of marriage and they raise their four-year-old son, Johnas, together.
Alex Dimitriades
Alex Dimitriades' Heartbreak High stint was short but sweet - and bloody tragic. He played the role of the lovable Nick Poulos for one year before Poulos' life was cut tragically short in a boxing ring accident. Yep, they covered all the after-school special feels with this one.
After high school (RIP Poulos) Dimitriades has go on to star in a bunch of Aussie shows including Neighbours, The Slap, Underbelly, Seven Types of Ambiguity and most recently, Wake in Fright.
He's also a DJ because everyone is a DJ in 2017.
Lara Cox
Lara Cox played Drazic's on again/off again girlfriend, Anita Scheppers, between 1996 and 1999. She was also the envy of every teenage girl in Australia (keep ya hands off our boyf, Coxy).
After Heartbreak High Cox starred in Home and Away, Lost World, and Kangaroo Jack as well as some short films and commercials.
Abi Tucker
Abi Tucker, now 44, played resident cool girl Jodie Cooper on the show. After Heartbreak High Tucker starred in The Secret Life of Us and McLeod's Daughters.
She's also a talented singer-songwriter who has released music as a solo artist, as part of the grunge band Bully and as one half of the duo, The Falling Seeds.
Luke Jacobz
Luke Jacobz played Zac Croft in the final season of Heartbreak High in 1999.
Since then Jacobz has had regular roles in McLeod's Daughters and Home and Away. He also hosted The X-Factor from 2010 to 2015.
Salvatore Coco
Salvatore Coco, now 42, played class clown Costa ‘Con’ Bordino in the series between 1994 and 1997.
Since then Coco has had roles in Home and Away, Underbelly, Water Rats and Catching Milat.
Most recently he played Bruno Rossi in the Channel Nine series The Secret Daughter.
Scott Major
Now 41-year-old Scott Major played long-haired Rivers on the show between 1994-1995.
He's also a long-standing cast member on Neighbours - first appearing on the soapie in 1993. He now acts on Neighbours and directs some of the episodes.
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