Who is Gold Logie nominee Costa Georgiadis?

He’s the bearded man who landed a surprise nomination for this year’s Gold Logie. So who is Costa Georgiadis?

When the majority of Aussie TV viewers hear the name Costa Georgiadis, they probably think to themselves, “Who?”

But that’s all about to change now that Georgiadis, who has hosted Gardening Australia on the ABC since 2012, has been nominated for a Gold Logie.

RELATED: Full list of Logie nominations

So who is the man with the crazy beard who could walk away with TV’s top prize on June 30?

“I sing in a band, I keep bees, I’ve got lots of worms, I’ve got a fetish for frogs that few people know about and whenever I get the chance, I lay down on soil,” Georgiadis told news.com.au right after he found out he’d been nominated for the Gold Logie.

2019 Gold Logie nominees Costa Georgiadis, Amanda Keller, Sam Mac, Tom Gleeson, Eve Morey and Rodger Corser. Missing is Waleed Aly.

“I’m sort of a little bit overwhelmed, but super stoked,” he said of the nomination. “It’s such good news for Gardening Australia in our 30th birthday year. To get this recognition and this level of support, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Georgiadis grew up in Sydney and learnt about food from his grandfather who was a market gardener.

He is a qualified landscape architect who dabbled in showbiz way before he landed the hosting role on Gardening Australia.

Costa the Garden Gnome (centre) with Scrapboy (Michael Balk) and Dirtgirl (Maree Lowes) from ABC Kids’ Get Grubby TV.

Younger viewers may also recognise the bearded personality as Costa the Garden Gnome, who makes up the cast of ABC Kids’ show Get Grubby TV with Dirtgirl and Scrapboy.

“I was on Hey Hey It’s Saturday as part of the successful duo known as The Hellenic Rebirth Brothers doing a piece called The Yodel Rap,” Georgiadis told news.com.au. “It was a combination of Austrian yodelling and hardcore rapping. When you combine those two the result can be earth shaking and compost building.”

Costa Georgiadis at Canberra's Floriade Festival.

From 2009 to 2011 Georgiadis hosted SBS show Costa’s Garden Odyssey before he was recruited by the ABC to replace Peter Cundall as host of Gardening Australia.

Cundall was a fan favourite and Georgiadis told News Corp that he was on the receiving end of a “brutal” backlash from some fans of the show when he was announced as the new host.

“When I first started with Gardening Australia it was pretty full-on because it was change and any change is difficult to deal with, let alone in a more conservative environment where you had this unkempt feral … how can our ABC allow this?” he said in 2015.

Some viewers weren’t fans of his wild beard which he’s been growing for almost 30 years.

“I know some people can’t get over it and constantly come up and say, ‘please, can’t you just trim it? Can’t you just this, can’t you just that?’

Costa Georgiadis is a bee keeper.

“It’s kind of funny. When you move into a public space, suddenly (the beard) becomes public as well. I mean, I don’t walk up to people and say ‘get a nose job’ or ‘geez, you’re porking up a bit there, got a bit of a winter coat on, I think you should go and get a personal trainer.’

But for those people who have a problem with it, I don’t have a problem with that and people can say what they like.”

Georgiadis is one of seven stars nominated for this year’s Gold Logie alongside Eve Morey from Neighbours, Sam Mac from Sunrise, Tom Gleeson from Hard Quiz, Rodger Corser from Doctor Doctor, Amanda Keller from The Living Room and Waleed Aly from The Project.

The public will be able to vote for their favourite from the shortlist when live voting reopens from June 24 right up until the end of the red carpet telecast on the night of the Logies.

When asked why people should vote for him, Georgiadis paused for a long time before answering, “Don’t hedge your bets. Give compost the recognition it deserves. Grow 4 Gold!”

Not a bad campaign slogan that one.

Costa Georgiadis is a Gold Logie nominee.