Neighbours

Peter Flannigan made his debut as an actor on the long running American daytime soap ‘As the World Turns’ in his early 20s while living in New York. Not a fan of the experience he turned his focus to modelling and became the infamous Gillette man with the smoothly shaved face, plastered all over posters and magazines world-wide.

After eight years based in New York City adorning billboard posters and TV screens as a Ralph Lauren model and Gillette front man, Peter returned to Australia with his family for a lifestyle change and to pursue his career on home turf.

“A friend of mine convinced me to go back to acting, so I decided to give it another shot and I got the role as Andrew Simpson on Neighbours,” Peter said.

Currently living in Melbourne, Peter is pursuing his career as an actor and is still doing a bit of modelling outside Ramsay Street. And to relax, in his spare time he brews his own beer.

“I’m part of a Brew Club, we get together once a week to discuss important matters of the world and taste test our latest disaster,” he laughs. “In the summer I do a fair bit of boating and weight-boarding, it’s a nice way to hang out with my family and friends."

Peter still misses New York from time to time but is happy with his life change.

“New York’s a party town, a young person’s place. We came back to Australia just after our first son was born. We were there for September 11th, and we just wanted to leave after that. It just changed our perspective on life. We knew we couldn’t be there anymore,” he said.

“For the first three or four years I thought about New York heaps, it was like an old girlfriend.”

"I’m really enjoying my time on Neighbours. I love the location shooting and the people.  Everybody here has been really helpful and they’re all so interesting,” he said.

Does Peter find the transition from high-flying model to actor on one of Australia’s long-running soaps a challenge? By the sounds of things, he’s enjoying the ride. A philosophical guy, Peter says “life’s not long enough to not enjoy all the different experiences it offers.”

Relatively new to the acting profession, Peter says he’s learnt that one of the most important things to remember when going into acting is to believe in yourself.

“One of the hardest things is to actually believe you can do it. You just need to have that belief that you are someone people could be interested in. You are so much more appealing to people if you believe in yourself,” he said.

“Some actors make it without having done any classes, some have done NIDA for four years. There isn’t one size that fits all in acting. It’s really about your own belief.”

Andrew Simpson is the new principal of Erinsborough High School. He’s tall, dark and extremely handsome. An overachiever and ambitious, Dan better watch his back because sexy Mr Simpson has an attraction to Libby Kennedy he sometimes can’t hide.