House Husbands star Firass Dirani no longer part of The Office Australia

Days after Firass Dirani posted a social media rant expressing support for Hamas comes news the Underbelly star was dumped from The Office Australia before production started.

Controversial actor Firass Dirani has been dumped from The Office Australia.

Five months after Amazon Prime promoted that the 39-year-old House Husbands actor would star in the spin-off to the hugely successful UK and US series, we can reveal producers changed their mind and he left the cast before production started.

The news comes days after Dirani posted a social media rant where he expressed support for Hamas and claimed those who backed Israel supported apartheid. The Australian actor shared a video on social media expressing his support for Hamas after the Palestinian militant group unleashed a horrific attack.

Dirani claimed that Hamas — which is considered a terrorist group by the Australian government — was being “propagated against as if they’re a terrorist militant group”.

He also compared the plight of Ukraine with Hamas, suggesting its recent butchery of unarmed women and children was “Palestinians resisting the oppressors”.

Firass Dirani on his video posted to Instagram, which has now been removed.

One of the comments responding to his video.

“Seeing some people posting about in support of the Israeli flag and in a way that Hamas has been propagated against as if they’re a terrorist militant group,” he told his 63,000 followers in a video.

“Not too long ago the Ukrainian people were armed and were fighting against Russia, and they were called heroes and people that were resisting, resisting the oppressors, and now when the Palestinians resist the oppressors, that has been going on for 75 years, they’re labelled something else.

“They’re labelled as terrorists or militants, savages.

“They have every right to defend themselves, and for those who are supporting Israel, ones that are posting the Israeli flag, you are supporting apartheid, you are supporting apartheid, period.”

In May, it was announced Dirani would star in the beloved comedy show alongside Shari Sebbens, Pallavi Sharda, Lucy Schmidt, Steen Raskopoulos, Edith Poor and Josh Thomas.

When The Saturday Telegraph asked insiders at Amazon Prime Video, the production company behind the sitcom, whether they had any comment to make following Dirani’s remarks, they said no, because he was not appearing on the show.

Dirani in a promotional shot for SAS Australia in 2020.

“We won’t be making a comment. Firass was announced as being cast in The Office Australia but he didn’t make it to production.

“There were ‘differences’ before production started. Production has wrapped up and he isn’t in the show.

“This often happens. People don’t get cast after pre-production.”

It is not known what those “differences” were.

This isn’t the first time Dirani has voiced his controversial opinions.

In 2022 he shared his take on the horrific murders of Queensland cops Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, linking their deaths with a Covid conspiracy theory which claimed the pandemic was planned.

“Wtf is going on in Qld? Earlier this year, there was that neighbour that killed his next door’s entire family. Now 6 gone again,” he wrote.

“Safe to say, Qld is the mass shooting state of this country. Plandemic really did a number on the psyche.”

The term “plandemic” refers to a 2020 video series that attempted to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

Earlier this year he also shared a post defending disgraced NRL star Jarryd Hayne after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home in 2018.

Dirani in a picture posted to his Instagram page.

The latest controversy also comes after the Underbelly actor’s infamous appearance on SAS Australia where he was branded by contestants and viewers as “the worst person”.

The actor — often described as being cocky — also managed to get the SAS directing staff (DS) off-side once.

Unimpressed with his attitude, the DS made the celebrities run a series of sprints, then submerge themselves in freezing cold water as punishment for Dirani’s behaviour.

At the time, Dirani hit out at producers for getting a “villain’s edit”, however SAS Australia directing staff Mark “Billy” Billingham dismissed Dirani’s claim and said: “He should be actually grateful to be edited the way they did. He’s a lot worse than that.”

According to Billingham, Dirani “came across as arrogant” and “had a terrible attitude”.

“It came to the point where the rest of the celebrities were getting really fed up with him. That’s not a showpiece — he really was messing up all the time and he could not keep his mouth shut, no matter what you said to him.”

Billingham said Dirani “drew attention to himself for all the wrong reasons” and said the star would constantly roll his eyes when being interviewed by the SAS Australia instructors.

“They’ve more than fairly edited him to be honest, because he was a pain in the arse.”

Radio personality Merrick Watts doubled down, saying he attempted to get Dirani booted from the show.

“An intervention was needed because Firass’ behaviour and attitude had literally brought several female recruits to tears, for which he was totally unremorseful,” Watts said at the time.

“This angered me and others. We felt he was not only selfish and disruptive but a danger to the group’s chances of making it through selection.”

Dirani doesn’t appear to have an agent at the moment.

Saturday Confidential went to Dirani for comment, however he didn’t respond.

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