Joseph Zada is an Australian actor attracting international attention through a fast-growing list of film and television roles. Born Joseph Cumpston in Sydney, he first worked in Australian productions before reaching a wider audience through Invisible Boys and We Were Liars. In 2026, his profile grew further when he appeared as Cal Trask in Netflix’s East of Eden and took on the role of young Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Interest in Joseph Zada now goes well beyond his acting credits. Viewers are searching for his age, real name, parents, brother, height, background, and the story behind his unusual professional surname.
Here is a closer look at what is reliably known about Joseph Zada and his rapidly developing career.
Who Is Joseph Zada?
Joseph Zada is an Australian actor born and raised in Sydney. He previously worked under his birth name, Joseph Cumpston, before adopting Joseph Zada as his professional name.
His screen credits include Bilched, The Speedway Murders, Total Control, Invisible Boys, We Were Liars, East of Eden, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. IMDb lists his earliest screen credit in 2019, while his most prominent recent roles have arrived since 2025.
| Joseph Zada Fact | Details |
| Full birth name | Joseph Cumpston |
| Professional name | Joseph Zada |
| Date of birth | July 21, 2005 |
| Age | 21 years old as of October 2026 |
| Birthplace | Sydney, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Profession | Actor |
| Father | Jeremy Cumpston |
| Mother | Jessica Brentnall |
| Notable brother | Hal Cumpston |
| Known for | We Were Liars, East of Eden, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping |
Zada was born on July 21, 2005, making him 21 years old in October 2026. His public biography identifies Sydney as both his birthplace and the city where he was raised.
Joseph Zada Age and Early Life
Joseph Zada’s age has become one of the most common searches surrounding the actor, particularly because he is taking on roles associated with performers from earlier generations.
Born July 21, 2005, Zada grew up in Sydney in a family already connected with film, television, and performance.
Acting was not initially an obvious career choice for him. In an earlier Vanity Fair profile, Zada recalled that his father encouraged him to participate in a local production of Romeo and Juliet. His older brother Hal’s auditions also exposed him to the practical side of filmmaking when he was young.
Rather than following a conventional academic path through to graduation, Zada ultimately prioritized acting opportunities. His career then accelerated quickly, particularly from 2023 onward.
What Is Joseph Zada’s Real Name?
Joseph Zada was born Joseph Cumpston.
His older acting credits can therefore appear under names such as Joseph Cumpston or Jo Cumpston. IMDb, for example, credits him as Joseph Cumpston in Bilched and as Jo Cumpston in Total Control.
Zada has explained that he adopted his current surname when he was around 18. In a recent profile, he said that “Zada” was connected to his grandmother and his family history. He also traced the name further back through his ancestry.
That means Joseph Zada is not a completely unrelated stage identity. It was selected because of its personal connection to his family.
Joseph Zada Parents and Family
Joseph Zada comes from a family with substantial connections to the Australian screen industry.
His father is Jeremy Cumpston, an actor, director, and doctor. Jeremy Cumpston is known in Australia for acting work including the medical drama All Saints. Zada’s mother, Jessica Brentnall, works as a film producer.
Zada is one of five siblings.
His best-known brother is Hal Cumpston, an actor, writer, and producer whose credits include The Walking Dead: World Beyond and Nine Perfect Strangers. Zada has credited Hal with helping spark his own interest in acting.
Their early creative environment was unusually hands-on. Zada has described family involvement in Hal’s auditions, with the process becoming closer to making small films than simply recording standard audition tapes.
That background offers useful context for Joseph Zada’s career. Although his later success came through competitive professional casting, he was exposed to performance and filmmaking well before his major international roles.
Joseph Zada Ethnicity and Heritage
Public profiles describe Joseph Zada as having Afghan and Aboriginal Australian ancestry through his paternal family line, with connections to the Barkandji people.
Vanity Fair’s 2026 profile also connects his choice of the professional surname Zada with this family heritage.
It is better to describe this as his publicly reported ancestry rather than trying to place him into a broader racial or ethnic category that he has not personally defined in those terms.
How Joseph Zada Started Acting
Zada’s professional career did not begin with The Hunger Games.
His first listed screen appearance came in the Australian comedy-drama Bilched in 2019, where he played Toby. The production had a strong family connection: his father Jeremy directed the movie, while his brother Hal was one of its principal creative forces.
Zada later appeared as Dan in The Speedway Murders and as Daniel in the Australian political drama Total Control.
A major shift came when he landed Invisible Boys, playing Charlie Roth. From there, several major projects followed in a relatively short period.
His trajectory can be summarized as:
Australian independent work → Australian television → Invisible Boys → We Were Liars → East of Eden → The Hunger Games
That progression helps explain why audiences may feel as though Zada appeared suddenly, even though he had already accumulated several years of acting experience.
Joseph Zada Movies and TV Shows
Joseph Zada’s movies and TV shows span Australian independent projects, streaming dramas, literary adaptations, and a major Hollywood franchise.
| Year | Movie or TV Show | Role |
| 2019 | Bilched | Toby |
| 2023 | The Speedway Murders | Dan |
| 2024 | Total Control | Daniel |
| 2025 | Invisible Boys | Charlie Roth |
| 2025 | We Were Liars | Johnny Sinclair Dennis |
| 2026 | East of Eden | Cal Trask |
| 2026 | The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping | Haymitch Abernathy |
IMDb currently lists eight acting credits for Zada and confirms these major roles.
His recent work is notable because three of his biggest projects are adaptations of established books, requiring him to portray characters that already have built-in audiences and expectations.
Joseph Zada in We Were Liars
Zada plays Johnny Sinclair Dennis in the television adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.
The role helped introduce him to a broader streaming audience and also demonstrates how seriously he approaches character preparation.
In an interview with Polyester, Zada explained that he returned to playing tennis while preparing for Johnny. He had played when he was younger and used the sport as a physical route into the character.
He also studied American tennis player John McEnroe, seeing similarities between McEnroe’s energy and Johnny’s personality. Zada additionally read The Great Gatsby, connecting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s world with themes he recognized in We Were Liars.
Those details provide a more practical picture of his acting process than simply describing him as committed or methodical.
Joseph Zada as Cal Trask in East of Eden
One of Joseph Zada’s most significant 2026 television roles is Cal Trask in Netflix’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
Netflix confirms Zada as part of a cast that includes Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, Hoon Lee, Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Ciarán Hinds, and Joe Anders. All seven episodes of the limited series are now streaming.
Cal is the son of Adam Trask and twin brother of Aron. Netflix describes him as struggling with his family’s legacy and questions surrounding the identity of his missing mother.
The casting naturally creates comparisons with James Dean, who famously played Cal in the 1955 film adaptation of East of Eden.
However, Zada’s performance should not simply be treated as an attempt to reproduce Dean’s. The modern Netflix series has a different format, creative team, cast, and storytelling space.
For Zada, the role is important because it places him at the center of a major literary adaptation while giving him material rooted in complicated family relationships, identity, jealousy, and inheritance.
Joseph Zada in The Hunger Games
Joseph Zada plays young Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
This is arguably the role most likely to introduce him to a worldwide mainstream audience.
The story takes place decades before Katniss Everdeen’s journey and centers on the period when Haymitch participates in the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
Older Haymitch was famously played by Woody Harrelson in the previous Hunger Games films. Zada is therefore playing the same character at a dramatically different stage of his life rather than replacing Harrelson in a continuation of the original timeline.
Vanity Fair reported that Zada competed against thousands of young actors before securing the role.
The casting also creates an unusual situation in Zada’s career: within a relatively short period, he has taken on characters strongly associated with both James Dean and Woody Harrelson.
Zada himself has pushed back against the idea that his job is simply to imitate those earlier performances. That distinction matters. A younger Haymitch must eventually feel compatible with the character audiences know while still functioning as his own person within a much earlier story.
How Tall Is Joseph Zada?
Joseph Zada’s height is another frequently searched detail, but online sources are not fully consistent.
IMDb currently lists Joseph Zada’s height as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m).
Other online profiles have published different figures, including 6 feet 1 inch.
Because there does not appear to be a clearly established official measurement from Zada himself, 6’2″ is best described as his reported IMDb height rather than an unquestionably confirmed measurement.
This is an area where repeating a single number without identifying its source can create unnecessary misinformation.
Joseph Zada’s Acting Style and Influences
Zada’s interviews suggest that he is still experimenting with his process rather than locking himself into one rigid acting technique.
While discussing We Were Liars, he said he wanted the freedom to experiment with different preparation methods because he was still young and relatively new to the profession.
His reported influences include River Phoenix and Heath Ledger, while earlier profiles have also discussed his habit of closely studying movies with his father.
His preparation varies with the material. For Johnny Sinclair, tennis and literary references helped him find the character. For major adaptations such as East of Eden and The Hunger Games, the original written material offers another layer of research.
This flexibility may be particularly valuable because many of his recent characters already existed in novels—and, in some cases, in famous earlier screen performances.
What’s Next for Joseph Zada?
Joseph Zada’s career entered a much larger stage in 2026.
Netflix’s East of Eden is already streaming, while The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping puts him at the center of one of contemporary cinema’s best-known franchises.
He has also expressed interest beyond acting. Recent profiles report that he has been developing writing projects with his brother and has considered directing.
It is too early to predict where those ambitions will lead, but his current work already shows a transition from Australian productions into major international projects.
Frequently Asked Questions About Joseph Zada
How old is Joseph Zada?
Joseph Zada was born on July 21, 2005, so he is 21 years old as of October 2026.
What is Joseph Zada’s real name?
His birth name is Joseph Cumpston. He previously appeared under that name in some acting credits before professionally adopting the surname Zada.
Where is Joseph Zada from?
Joseph Zada was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.
Who are Joseph Zada’s parents?
His father is Jeremy Cumpston, an actor, director, and doctor, while his mother, Jessica Brentnall, works as a film producer.
Who is Joseph Zada’s brother?
His older brother Hal Cumpston is an Australian actor, writer, and producer. Zada has four siblings in total and has discussed the creative influence his family had on his interest in film.
Who does Joseph Zada play in The Hunger Games?
Zada portrays young Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The older version of Haymitch was played by Woody Harrelson in the earlier movies.
How tall is Joseph Zada?
IMDb lists Joseph Zada at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), although other online sources publish slightly different figures. His exact height should therefore be treated as publicly reported rather than independently confirmed.
Conclusion
Joseph Zada has moved quickly from smaller Australian productions to roles attached to internationally recognized books and franchises. Born Joseph Cumpston in Sydney, the 21-year-old actor built early experience through projects such as Bilched, Total Control, and Invisible Boys before gaining wider recognition with We Were Liars.
His portrayal of Cal Trask in East of Eden and his role as young Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping represent the biggest steps in his career so far. Rather than relying on one breakout project, Zada is building a filmography across drama, literary adaptations, television, and major franchise filmmaking.
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