Neighbours has announced that Shiv Palekar will be joining the cast in the new role of Harold’s Cafe Manager, Haz Devkar when the series returns later this year. This is the first non-returnee character that has been revealed since the announcement that the show had been recommissioned by Amazon Freevee last November.
In a post on social media, they wrote “Harold’s is under new management! We’re thrilled to announce that Shiv Palekar will be joining us in the new role of Haz Devkar in all new episodes of #Neighbours later this year. (Plus, he’s had the seal of approval from Harold himself…)” and shared two images of the actor on the set of Harold’s, one with Ian Smith himself.
When we last saw Harold’s Cafe it was under the ownership of Dipi Rebecchi, being managed by Nicolette Stone. Haz joins a long list of characters that have served behind the counter including Lauren Carpenter/Turner, Mark Gottlieb, Annalise Hartman, Sky Mangel and, of course, even Harold Bishop.
The cafe first appeared on our screens in 1986 when Daphne Lawrence relocated her coffee shop to the Lassiters complex. Since then it has undergone a number of name changes, survived fires, a tornado, been the site of an armed siege and the location for Lou Carpenter’s emergency tracheotomy, performed by Susan Kennedy.
Shiv has previously appeared in a number of short films and made a handful of TV appearances. Most recently he played the character Vikram in Apple TV+’s Shantaram, about an Australian bank robber who flees to India, a series which starred Charlie Hunnam.
Neighbours is currently in production in Melbourne and new episodes will air later this year on Freevee.
[…] split up in the group shot, to keep that air of surprise, it was always felt the dog may be part of Haz’s family group. But nothing was known about the dog…until […]