Home And Away: Putting aside the ‘handsome cop’ image, who is Nicholas Cartwright really?

Home and Away’s newest star is easy on the eyes and he has even been dubbed “hot cop”, but there is more to the man than his chiselled jaw.

Nicholas Cartwright will be entering the soap world on Monday night, but the actor’s path to Summer Bay hasn’t been straightforward.

The 33-year-old, who will play Senior Constable Cash Newman, served in the Australian Army as a rifleman for six years and he had been deployed to East Timor and Afghanistan before turning to acting.

So how does an army man get into acting?

Nicholas felt that after leaving the army, he had to shake things up, and he told Perth Now that he needed to fill the void the defence force left.

“You can kind of feel a little lost when you get out of the defence force, and no one wants to do a normal job.

“So I thought, what’s the craziest thing I can do and decided to go to NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art),” Nicolas told the publication.

Even though he has no experience performing on television, he will act beside James Stewart, whose character, Justin Morgan, will have a run-in with Nicolas as a body washes up and throws Summer Bay into a frenzy.

Despite being green, the actor believes his military training has prepared him for his role.

“I think it really helps having a military background and understanding of rank and things like that to go into a position like this,” he said.

Before Nicolas landed his role on the soap, he had already struck a friendship with Home and Away’s Ethan Brown, who he met at NIDA.

“I remember having a laugh with Ethan when he first got on the show because as soon as you’re working, they’re throwing you out topless,” Nicolas told PerthNow.

Considering, this is Nicholas’ first role out of drama school, we can expect good things from the veteran, who clearly has more to bring to his role than audiences may realise.