Salvatore Coco rose to fame in the late ’90s when he starred in Heartbreak High as the popular and charismatic Costa ‘Con’ Bordino from 1994 to 1997.
But the 49-year-old actor recently dropped off the map after a slump in on-screen work, despite landing roles in Underbelly and Home and Away.
According to your IMDBThe singer had regular yearly work from his peak until 2019, when scripts began to slow down and he was seen asking for work on live television.
That year, he starred in the failed reboot of the late ’90s hit Australian TV show SeaChange, which attempted a lackluster revival nearly two decades after its end.
Salvatore landed a role in the two-part Underbelly spin-off Informer 3838 in 2020, and appeared in another miniseries the following year titled Australian Gangster.
Salvatore Coco, 49, rose to fame in the late ’90s when he starred in Heartbreak High as the popular and charismatic Costa ‘Con’ Bordino. In the photo of the program with Ada Nicodemou
His last television gig was in 2022, when he returned to Home and Away for the third time to reprise his role as Dimitri Poulos.
Salvatore, now considered a part-time actor, appears to make a living as a professional master of ceremonies, working primarily at weddings.
During a rare television interview in 2019, Salvatore took advantage of the exposure by interrupting the hosts and asking for a job as an emcee.
He was speaking to hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur on The Morning Show about how his life has changed since his days as a teen heartthrob in the ’90s.
Seeing an opportunity to promote his business, Salvatore began advertising his services to viewers at home.
The actor recently fell off the map as his on-screen work slowed in 2019 when he appeared on The Morning Show to promote his live TV emceeing work.
He asked the hosts: ‘Can I plug in a little?’ before advertising where potential customers can find you online.
In that same interview, Salvatore also expressed interest in joining a Heartbreak High reboot, but didn’t know who could “make it happen.”
“If there is someone who is willing to do it and finance it, let’s do it,” he added.
He suggested that a good way to bring the cast back would be to make a new series in which the old characters have their own children who attend Hartley High.
Salvatore added that he had even spoken to fellow Heartbreak High star Scott Major about the proposed storyline.
After some minor television work, including a return to Home and Away for a third time, Salvatore appears to be making a living as a professional emcee.
“I had a little conversation with Scott Major and said, ‘We should do it, we should do it,'” he said.
Heartbreak High was originally a teen soap opera set in Sydney that aired on Channel 10 and ABC between 1994 and 1999.
It has since been rebooted for Netflix as an Australian comedy drama series.
While it appears that Salvatore was not asked to join the Heartbreak High reboot, the actor has been very vocal about his love for the franchise.
Salvatore recently made two posts about the original series he starred in, one of which shows the fan mail he received from China for his role in the series.
Salvatore previously expressed that he was eager to join the Heartbreak High reboot, but was not asked to join the recent Netflix revival. Pictured with Scott Major and Tai Nguyen
Just a few days later, she made another Heartbreak High tribute post in celebration of the show’s 30th anniversary, which coincided with her 49th birthday.
“An Italian kid from the Interior West got a role in a TV series he knew little about and it turned out to be one of the biggest TV shows of the ’90s,” he wrote.
30 years later, Heartbreak High still makes audiences want to come home, sit in front of the TV, and get lost in real-life characters and journeys.
“I think this program will continue to do so for another 30 years, if not longer.”
In 2022, Salvatore went to bat for the reboot, giving the new Netflix series his approval when it appeared on the television black box podcast.
Despite not appearing in the reboot, Salvatore has expressed his love for the Heartbreak High franchise and gave the revamped series his approval.
The Two Hands actor decisively said he “loved” the new series and also dismissed claims the show was too “woke”.
He said: ‘I thought it was fantastic. There were concerns that it was too “woke” and too dominant with LGBT views.
‘But no, he touched on the issues and it wasn’t in your face. “It was pretty subtle.”
Salvatore said that while Netflix could never fully recreate the hit ’90s show, he was a fan of the “approach they took with the reboot.”
He concluded by saying, “It’s a new version with new people, I really like it.”