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Actor, Cameo & Crew Profiles > Actor Profiles > Bernard Curry

Bernard Curry
Played: Luke Handley
Appeared: 1995-1996

Bernard Curry was born on 27th March 1974 in Melbourne, Australia, rising to the public's attention in a number of prominent television programmes including Neighbours, Home and Away, Once Upon a Time, Wentworth and Big Brother VIP.

Bernard comes from a very talented family with two brothers who have also had roles in Neighbours. His older brother, Andrew Curry, had a recurring role in Neighbours, playing Larry 'Woody' Woodhouse, a love interest of Steph Scully, with appearances in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2010. Their younger brother, comedian, Stephen Curry did two short stints on Neighbours, first playing Greg Bartlett in 1993, and then playing Ted Long in 1998.

Bernard's own acting career began in the early nineties, guesting on various TV shows such as Chances and Law of the Land before he gained a role in Neighbours as Luke Handley between 1995 and 1996. The character of Luke was initially brought in on a short contract, as a clandestine love interest for Libby Kennedy, as he was older than her and she was still at school. Afraid of commitment, due to the death of his sister, he quickly moved onto his housemate, Ren and both Bernard and Raelee Hill, who played Ren, were written out of the show as the couple moved to Japan.

However, having proved popular with viewers, Bernard was asked back to Neighbours and stayed for over a year, playing Luke, who had ended his relationship with Ren and returned to Erinsborough alone. During that year he suffered a breakdown, engaged in various romantic liaisons and survived cancer, eventually moving away to Malaysia to look after on-off girlfriend Danni Stark, who had contracted Malaria. Luke's cancer storyline was nominated for Most Dramatic Storyline at the 1997 Inside Soap Awards.

After leaving Neighbours, Bernard's career went from strength to strength, appearing in various TV series such as Something in the Air and Packed to the Rafters. He also won roles in TV movies including The Junction Boys and shorts such as Alpha Male.

During this time, Bernard's own life became quite the story, meeting his wife at the circus of all places! He went to watch his brother, Stephen, perform at The Famous Spiegeltent in 2005 and immediately fell for the Venue and Stage Manager, Sonja. When she told him that her life was nomadic and invited him to join her, the pair spent the next two years, happy and in love, travelling together. In 2010, they had their first son, Fox and got married in the back garden of their family beach home eight months later. They now have a second son, Banjo.

Bernard's next big role came in the form of Hugo Austin, older brother of teenager Xavier and son of school principal Gina in Home and Away. Hugo was a far cry from Luke Handley, taking the show in a rather dark direction as it tackled a human trafficking story, with Hugo one of the ring leaders. Not content with breaking up fledgling lesbian couple Charlie and Joey with a one night stand with Charlie, Hugo also made a play for his late cousin's wife, Martha. Then, in a strange twist, disgraced policeman, Angelo Rosetta, who had been set free from prison for murder to bring Hugo down, let him and Martha escape to America to live happily ever after.

Since then, Bernard has had roles on successful US shows such as Pretty Little Liars, CSI and Once Upon a Time. He also appeared in Flipside, for which both his brothers were writers and in which they also starred. He also appeared in the film A Boy Called Sailboat, for which Andrew Curry was a Producer. And from 2009 to 2012, Bernard successfully tried his hand at presenting, taking on the role of hosting Beauty and the Geek Australia.

In 2016, things really took off for Bernard when he accepted the role of Jake Stewart in Wentworth, which finished in 2021. He was nominated for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2019 and Most Popular Actor in 2022 at the Logies for this role. Most recently, Bernard entered the Big Brother VIP house in Australia to raise money for mental health charity, One in Five. He was the fifth celebrity to be evicted from the house, losing out to model and actress, Ellie Gonsalves.

Profile by Tess

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