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Grad lands lead role in musical
Hani Zakaria stars in sold-out High School Musical 2
REPORT CARD
STUDENT Hani Zakaria
GRADUATED Langstaff Secondary, 2008
BEST SUBJECT Drama
WORST SUBJECT Math
CURRENT JOB Actor
AS FAR AS popularity goes, Richmond Hill’s Hani Zakaria is no Zac Efron — but don’t tell that to the hordes of screaming fans who helped sell out 12 shows of High School Musical 2 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts this past March. The stage show featured Zakaria, now 18, in the lead role made famous by the Hollywood star.
“They would think I was the real Zac Efron,” Zakaria says.
In fact, just a year ago, Zakaria was an ordinary student at Langstaff Secondary School. He was a regular in school productions but had never ventured much beyond the school theatre.
“Typical story,” he says, “Boy meets school, boy meets drama, boy likes drama.”
His teachers and guidance counsellors encouraged him to pursue acting.
“I met the right people who said, ‘If this is what you want to do, go after it,’” he says.
So he took his headshots to a local talent agency and landed a spot on their roster.
Then, earlier this year, Zakaria responded to an advertisement looking for someone to play a “good-looking teen dreamboat” in High School Musical 2. Zakaria auditioned, and with that, a professional career was born.
After a successful March run, the show returns to the stage this summer with Zakaria again as the male lead.
Although High School Musical 2 is the biggest opportunity of Zakaria’s career thus far, he nearly became known for another reason. Last year, he was a top 40 finalist on Canadian Idol. While he was canned for looking “too dorky” while singing, he still considers it an awesome experience.
“Any performance,” he says, “being in front of people on camera, on stage, really that’s my calling.”
At the moment, Zakaria is wrapping up his first year of a commerce degree with a minor in theatre at the University of Toronto, but when he was a high school student, his favourite teacher was Mr. Parkinson, who taught English.
“There are some teachers that come to school like they are on business,” he says, but not Mr. Parkinson, who was not only a teacher, but also a friend to his students.
Zakaria may never reach Efron’s level of success, but by being a part of the Disney franchise, he’s at least on the right track.
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