Childhood & Early Life
Kazinsky was born Robert John Appleby on November 18, 1983, in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England, to Phyllis and Paul Appleby. His parents are Jewish with Polish and Russian ancestry. He has an elder brother, Michael.
Kazinsky grew up in Brighton, on Southern coast of England, where he studied at the ‘Hove Park School,’ in Hove, and graduated in 2000. He received ‘B’ grade in his school drama class, and participated in the school productions of ‘Bugsy Malone’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s dream.’
In 2002, Kazinsky joined the ‘Guildford School of Acting’ to study theater and graduated with honors, in 2005.
He reportedly faced trouble during his school and college years, as he was expelled from both.
For his professional acting career, he took his grandfather’s middle name.
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Career
In the initial stages of his career, Kazinsky worked in Israeli TV commercials. In 2005, he made his acting debut through the CBBC children’s sitcom series ‘The Basil Brush Show,’ where he played a guest role of ‘Sven Garley.’
Next, Kazinsky appeared in the ‘Sky One’s’ football based series ‘Dream Team,’ in the role of an inscrutable player ‘Casper Rose.’ He worked only for one season [2005-2006] in this series and decided to leave the show [so his character was killed], but even during his one season appearance, his character was well-liked and won 54.29% of votes in that season’s ‘most popular character’ poll.
In 2006, Kazinsly was cast in the role of a ‘disturbed’ but smooth talking ex-military man, ‘Sean Slater,’ in the BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders.’ This series fetched him accolades and fame. The role earned him 23 nominations, of which he won 7 awards, including 2 ‘Best Actor’ awards.
Kazinsky was given an 8 week suspension from ‘EastEnders’ on March 27, 2007. According to the newspaper ‘The People,’ Kazinsly had bombarded a glamour model, Aimi Robinson, with obscene text messages and photographs. He immediately apologized ‘for any offense caused and for bringing the show into disrepute.’
In October 2008, he announced that he would leave the show and made his last appearance on January 1, 2009. In January 2019, it was announced that he will reprise his role in ‘EastEnders’ and return for a brief stint in April 2019.
Kazinsky moved to Los Angeles after he was cast in the role of a pilot, ‘Chester Barnes,’ in George Lucas’ World War II film, ‘Red Tails’ [released in 2012].
According to him, he met a girl while working in ‘Red Tails,’ and moved to Los Angeles to be with her.
In 2010, Kazinsky was cast as one of the dwarfs, ‘Fili,’ in the film ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,’ but after one month of shooting he opted out in April 2011, because of ‘personal reasons.’ He appeared as a guest artist in ‘Law and Order: Los Angeles,’ and [as Dr. Appleton] in the ABC drama series ‘Brothers and Sisters.’
Kazinsky got a recurring role of ‘Macklyn Warlow’ in the sixth season of Alan Ball’s fantasy horror drama series ‘True Blood’ [2013], wherein he appeared alongside Anna Paquin. In 2013, he played the role of Australian pilot ‘Chuck Hansen’ in the science fiction monster film ‘Pacific Rim,’ which was directed by Guillermo del Toro.
In the 2015 Anne Fletcher directed comedy film ‘Hot Pursuit,’ he appeared in the role of ‘Randy’ alongside Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara. Kazinsky got to play the lead role of ‘Jimmy Pritchard,’ a murdered ex-cop who is genetically made alive, in the Fox sci-fi crime drama ‘Second Chance.’ It was premiered on TV in January 2016, but ran for only one season.
In 2016’s action fantasy film ‘Warcraft’ [based on the video game of the same name], Kazinsky appeared as ‘Orgrim Doomhammer.’ He worked in the 2018 science fiction film ‘Mute’ and did a cameo role as ‘Biker / The Don’ in Marvel’s 2019 superhero film ‘Captain Marvel.’
In April 2019, the new producer of ‘EastEnders,’ Kate Oates, brought him back; Kazinsky briefly reprised his role as ‘Sean Slater’ in the show.
