Joshua Orpin is a name that has moved through the international entertainment industry with quiet, accumulating force — from short films in Australia to a beloved superhero role on HBO Max, from a beloved Australian soap opera to one of the most prestigious period drama casts assembled for television in years. At 30 years old, this Melbourne-born, WAAPA-trained actor has already demonstrated a range and seriousness of craft that few performers his age can match, and his casting as Soames Forsyte in The Forsytes — the lavish PBS Masterpiece and Channel 5 adaptation of John Galsworthy’s Nobel Prize-winning novels — marks the most significant chapter yet in a career that shows every sign of having much further still to go.
Biography / Wiki Table
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Joshua Murray Orpin |
| Date of Birth | April 15, 1994 |
| Age (2025) | 31 years old |
| Place of Birth | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Raised In | Melbourne, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Religion | Christian |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
| Eye Color | Blue/Grey |
| Hair Color | Dark Brown |
| Sisters | Eileen Orpin; Chloe Orpin |
| Partner | Asha Rosie Khan (together since 2014) |
| Pets | Cat named Achilles; dogs |
| Training | Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), 2015–2017 |
| Representation | RGM Artists (Australia); CVGG Ltd (UK) |
| @joshua_orpin (229K+ followers) | |
| IMDb | nm6906929 |
| Known For | Titans (HBO Max), The Forsytes (PBS Masterpiece / Channel 5), Home and Away (Seven Network) |
| Breakthrough Role | Conner Kent / Superboy — Titans (Season 2 onwards, 2019–2023) |
| Most Prestigious Role | Soames Forsyte — The Forsytes (2025–present) |
| Career Start | 2017 (short films Dark Horses; You, Me & Karen) |
| Award Nomination | Equity Ensemble Award — The Blake Mysteries: Ghost Stories (2019) |
| Net Worth (est.) | $1–2 million |
| Total IMDb Credits | 15+ |
Early Life: Melbourne Born, Happily Raised
Joshua Murray Orpin was born on April 15, 1994, in Melbourne, Victoria — Australia’s cultural capital and one of the world’s great cities for the performing arts. He grew up in Melbourne alongside his two sisters, Eileen and Chloe, in what he has described as a happy childhood supported by parents who encouraged his artistic instincts from an early age. The specific details of his family’s background are not matters of extensive public record — he is, by temperament and disposition, a private person who prefers to let his work carry the conversation — but everything in his public persona points to someone grounded, grateful, and clear-eyed about where he comes from and what shaped him.
He has described performing in theatre during his school years as a formative experience, and the evidence of what that foundation built is visible in the specificity and physical commitment he brings to every role he takes on. Melbourne’s performing arts culture — its theatre tradition, its drama school ecosystem, its community of serious working artists — gave him exactly the environment needed to develop genuine artistic ambition before he ever stepped in front of a professional camera.
He has been in a relationship with Asha Rosie Khan since 2014 — a decade of partnership that predates his professional career entirely and speaks to a personal life grounded in genuine connection rather than the transactional nature of celebrity. He is a self-described animal lover who has shared his life with a cat named Achilles and dogs, and his Instagram — active, warm, and considerably more personal than many performers of his profile choose to be — reflects someone who has not lost the plot of who he actually is amidst the growing recognition of what he does professionally.
WAAPA: The Conservatory That Built the Foundation
The decision that most clearly shaped the professional seriousness with which Joshua Orpin has approached his craft was his attendance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts — universally known as WAAPA — from 2015 to 2017. WAAPA is located in Perth, Western Australia, a continent-spanning distance from his Melbourne home, and is widely considered the finest performing arts training institution in Australia and one of the top conservatories in the world.
The school’s alumni list reads as a comprehensive account of Australian screen and stage achievement — Tim Minchin, Frances O’Connor, Hugh Jackman, Richard Roxburgh, Alyssa McClelland and dozens of others who have built significant international careers passed through its demanding programme. Acceptance is competitive and the training is rigorous: three years of full-time work across acting, movement, voice, and performance technique that produces graduates who arrive in the professional world with genuinely complete instruments.
For Orpin, the choice of WAAPA over closer or more convenient options was a signal of intent — a willingness to leave home, commit fully, and build a foundation worthy of the ambitions he carried. The two years he spent there, graduating in 2017, equipped him with the technical grounding and professional discipline that his subsequent career has consistently put on display.
Career Beginnings: Short Films and The Neon Spectrum
Joshua Orpin’s professional career began in 2017, immediately following his WAAPA graduation, with two short films: Dark Horses, in which he played Groom, and You, Me & Karen. Both were modest early credits, but both served the essential function of establishing a professional screen presence and beginning the accumulation of experience that all serious careers require.
The same year brought his feature film debut — The Neon Spectrum, an Australian thriller in which he played the lead role of Axel. The film served as his first sustained opportunity to demonstrate what WAAPA had built and what his own instincts for character could produce in a feature-length context.
He also appeared in The Blake Mysteries: Ghost Stories (2018) — the Australian telemovie based on the popular series The Doctor Blake Mysteries, starring Craig McLachlan — in a role that earned him an Equity Ensemble Award nomination in 2019, his first formal industry recognition for the quality of his work.
Additional early credits included an appearance in the American series Preacher (2019) — the AMC supernatural drama based on the Garth Ennis comic book — as an Insecure Student, a small but professional credit in a major international production that began to expand his screen presence beyond Australian productions.
Titans: Conner Kent / Superboy and the International Breakthrough
The role that announced Joshua Orpin to the world was Conner Kent — also known as Superboy — in Titans, the DC Universe superhero drama that premiered on the DC Universe streaming platform before transitioning to HBO Max. He joined the show for its second season in 2019, taking over the role from its brief first-season portrayal, and remained with the series through its fourth and final season in 2023 — accumulating 27 episodes as one of the show’s central characters.
The casting made him the second actor to play Conner Kent / Superboy in a live-action production, after Lucas Grabeel in Smallville (2001). It was a significant piece of pop-culture heritage to inherit, and the weight of that inheritance was something Orpin took very seriously from the beginning.
He has spoken candidly about his preparation for the role — visiting his local comic book store and acquiring every available issue of Teen Titans and Superboy to understand the character’s full history, mythology, and evolution across different creative eras. He was already familiar with the character’s 1990s leather jacket-wearing iteration, but sought a comprehensive understanding that would allow him to serve the specific version of Conner that Titans was presenting — one heavily influenced by writer Geoff Johns’ approach, and one that required him to be the series’ emotional beacon of hope against its characteristically darker tone.
The physical demands of the role were equally significant. Superboy is, in the comics and in the show, a character of extraordinary physical presence — a clone of Superman, carrying all of the genetic heritage that implies. Orpin committed to a rigorous physical transformation, which he documented in an Instagram post that became widely shared within the show’s fanbase: “In February last year, I was both excited and daunted by the prospect of playing Superboy. I knew that if I didn’t commit to the physicality of this iconic character, I’d never forgiven myself.”
He performed alongside Brenton Thwaites (Dick Grayson / Nightwing), Anna Diop (Starfire), Ryan Potter (Beast Boy), and Teagan Croft (Rachel Roth / Raven) across four seasons, contributing to a show that built one of the most devoted fanbases in the DC streaming universe.
Love Me, Upright, and Australian Credentials
Alongside the international profile building through Titans, Joshua Orpin maintained a consistent connection to Australian production that reflects both his loyalty to the industry that first gave him opportunities and a genuine commitment to doing excellent work at every scale of production.
He appeared in Love Me (2021) — the ABC Australia and Netflix romantic drama series exploring love across three generations — in a guest capacity as Kai, contributing to a production that received strong critical attention and significant streaming visibility through its Netflix release.
He appeared in Upright (2019) — the Australian road trip drama series created by and starring Tim Minchin — as Matty, a recurring role in a show that earned strong critical recognition for its emotional warmth and the quality of its performances.
These credits — alongside the Equity-nominated Blake Mysteries work and the Preacher cameo — paint the picture of a performer who never coasted between major roles, who consistently chose quality over convenience, and who built professional relationships in both Australian and international productions that would serve the larger career he was constructing.
Home and Away (2024): Returning to Australian Roots
In 2024, Joshua Orpin joined the cast of Home and Away — the Seven Network’s long-running Australian soap opera, one of the most culturally embedded and widely watched programmes in Australian television history — as Rory, appearing in a recurring capacity during 2024.
The decision to join Home and Away at this stage of his career was a deliberately grounded one. After the international visibility of Titans and the period drama prestige of The Forsytes casting, returning to Australian soap opera demonstrated both confidence and a lack of pretension — a willingness to do solid professional work in a format that has been the training ground for generations of Australian performers, and that carries genuine cultural weight in the country that gave him his start.
Australian soap opera is frequently underestimated by international observers who have not grown up with it, but for Australian audiences it is a beloved and deeply familiar institution, and appearing in it is a different kind of professional statement than appearing in an HBO Max superhero series — one that says, in effect: I am still this, even while I am also that.
The Forsytes (2025): Soames Forsyte and the Crowning Achievement
The role that represents the most significant and prestigious chapter of Joshua Orpin’s career to date is Soames Forsyte in The Forsytes — the six-part period drama adaptation of John Galsworthy’s Nobel Prize-winning Forsyte Saga novels, produced by Mammoth Screen for PBS Masterpiece and the UK’s Channel 5.
The Forsytes premiered on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2025, and is scheduled to premiere on PBS Masterpiece in the United States on March 22, 2026. A second season was commissioned before the first had even aired — a remarkable expression of confidence from both broadcasters in the quality of what they had been shown.
The show brings together one of the most distinguished ensemble casts assembled for a British period drama in recent years:
| Cast Member | Role | Known For |
| Francesca Annis | Ann Forsyte (matriarch) | Flesh and Blood, Lillie |
| Stephen Moyer | Jolyon Forsyte Sr. | True Blood, Sexy Beast |
| Jack Davenport | James Forsyte | The Morning Show, Ten Percent |
| Danny Griffin | Jo Forsyte Jr. | Fate: The Winx Saga |
| Tuppence Middleton | Frances Forsyte | Downton Abbey: A New Era, Sense8 |
| Eleanor Tomlinson | Louisa Byrne | Poldark, One Day |
| Joshua Orpin | Soames Forsyte | Titans, Home and Away |
| Millie Gibson | Irene Heron | Doctor Who |
| Jamie Flatters | Philip Bosinney | Avatar: The Way of Water |
| Josette Simon OBE | Mrs. Ellen Parker Barrington | Anatomy of a Scandal |
| Susan Hampshire OBE | Lady Carteret | 1967 BBC Forsyte Saga original |
| Tom Durant-Pritchard | Monty Dartie | This Is Going to Hurt, Miss Scarlet |
Joshua Orpin plays Soames Forsyte — the most complex, central, and dramatically loaded character in Galsworthy’s original saga. Soames is described in the production as James Forsyte’s shrewd and sometimes ruthless son: a man whose passionate, possessive love for the dancer Irene (played by Millie Gibson) becomes the consuming force of his life, and whose difficulty expressing genuine emotional connection drives the central tragedy of the story.
In Galsworthy’s original novels, Soames is one of the great literary antiheroes of English fiction — a man the reader simultaneously pities and condemns, whose deep capacity for love is locked behind a rigidity and need for control that destroys everything he most wants to hold. Playing him requires an actor who can make the audience feel the tragedy beneath the repression, who can humanise a figure whose behaviour is frequently inexcusable, and who can sustain that complex moral ambiguity across six episodes of sustained dramatic storytelling.
The choice to cast a 30-year-old Australian — known primarily for a very different kind of role in an American superhero franchise — in one of British literary fiction’s most iconic parts is, on paper, a bold one. The evidence of The Forsytes suggests it is also an inspired one. The production’s executive producer Damien Timmer described the scripts as delivering a cast capable of laying bare the secrets of Soames and the Forsyte family for a new generation of fans, and Orpin’s Soames has been at the centre of the show’s most discussed and most emotionally compelling storylines.
The series has already been renewed for a second season, with filming beginning in Bristol in June 2025 alongside the original cast — including Orpin — and three new additions: Richard Rankin (Outlander’s Jamie Fraser), Sarah Alexander (Pennyworth), and Nia Ashi (Bob Marley: One Love). The continuation is a significant professional commitment that will extend his Soames Forsyte portrayal into at least a second chapter and deepen the character’s already considerable complexity.
What Makes Joshua Orpin Stand Out
The career arc of Joshua Orpin is one of the cleaner examples in recent Australian screen history of what WAAPA training, thoughtful career choices, and genuine commitment to craft can produce when combined with natural talent and the right opportunities.
He did not arrive in the industry through nepotism, reality television, social media, or the kind of overnight viral moment that can launch a profile without building a foundation. He attended one of the world’s finest performing arts conservatories. He built his early career through short films and Australian television. He committed fully to a physically demanding superhero role and sustained it across four seasons of an international streaming series. He returned to Australian production to stay grounded. And then he walked into one of British television’s most prestigious period drama casts and took on the character who is arguably its most demanding role.
He is, at 31, at exactly the stage of a career where the decisions made now will determine whether the talent becomes legacy. Everything in his choices to this point suggests he understands that — and is making those decisions with exactly the seriousness they deserve.
The animal lover who calls himself a “part-time actor, full-time cat dad” on Instagram; the partner of ten years who has never made his relationship a promotional asset; the WAAPA graduate who went back to Australian soap opera after HBO Max; the Melbourne kid who is now playing one of the great characters in English literary fiction for PBS Masterpiece and Channel 5 — all of these are the same person, and the consistency of character running through all of it is perhaps the most encouraging thing about what comes next.
Complete Career Filmography
| Year | Project | Role | Type | Network / Platform |
| 2017 | Dark Horses | Groom | Short Film | — |
| 2017 | You, Me & Karen | — | Short Film | — |
| 2017 | The Neon Spectrum | Axel | Feature Film | — |
| 2018 | The Doctor Blake Mysteries | Constable Peter Crowe | TV Episode | Seven Network |
| 2018 | The Blake Mysteries: Ghost Stories | — | Telemovie | Seven Network |
| 2019 | Preacher | Insecure Student | TV Guest | AMC |
| 2019 | Titans (Season 2) | Conner Kent / Superboy | Series Regular | DC Universe |
| 2019 | Upright | Matty | Recurring | Foxtel |
| 2020 | Highest Point | — | Film | — |
| 2021 | Titans (Season 3) | Conner Kent / Superboy | Series Regular | HBO Max |
| 2021 | Love Me | Kai | Guest | ABC Australia / Netflix |
| 2021 | Mother Dearest | — | Film | — |
| 2022 | Titans (Season 4) | Conner Kent / Superboy | Series Regular | HBO Max |
| 2023 | Titans (Season 4 continues) | Conner Kent / Superboy | Series Regular | HBO Max |
| 2024 | Home and Away | Rory | Recurring | Seven Network |
| 2025 | The Forsytes | Soames Forsyte | Series Lead | Channel 5 / PBS Masterpiece |
| 2025–ongoing | The Forsytes Season 2 | Soames Forsyte | Series Lead | Channel 5 / PBS Masterpiece |