Greek Australian gardening host Costa Georgiadis receives Gold Logie nomination

The nominees for this year’s Australian Gold Logie awards have been revealed and on the list is popular Greek Australian television host Costa Georgiadis, who has presented Gardening Australia since 2012.

Georgiadis is a well-known landscape architect and television personality, who grew up in Sydney, Australia with his Greek parents.

The Gold Logie nominee went to Greece as a teenager and says it was a wonderful experience that he will never forget.

“As a 15-year-old my parents sent me on a trip for Greek Australian kids to go over and see Greece. I went for about eight weeks and realised when I was there that I could speak Greek. I was with other friends from Sydney – same sort of thing, second-generation kids – who couldn’t speak Greek and I was the interpreter. I’ll never forget it. I came home and I said to my parents, “Thank you for making me learn Greek,” he told The Beast.

It was in his grandfather's market garden that Georgiadis developed a love of nature. It took on an intellectual dimension when he studied landscape gardening at the University of New South Wales and he then became interested in issues of sustainability.

From 2009 to 2011, he was the host of SBS's Costa's Garden Odyssey, where he got his hands and knees dirty and expounded on environmental issues and the spirituality of gardening.

In 2011, the ABC announced Georgiadis as the new host of Gardening Australia, with his first show airing on 24 March 2012. He aims to get kids involved and to entertain people rather than to overload them with information. Costas is particularly keen to put a health and nutrition message into the show and to give it energy and bounce.

In 2014, Georgiadis also starred as 'Costa the Garden Gnome' in Get Grubby TV on ABC Kids.

The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards) are an annual institution that celebrates Australian television, sponsored and organised by magazine TV Week, with the first ceremony in 1959.

The Awards are presented in twenty categories representing both public and industry voted nominations, with the highest honour and most widely publicised award being the Gold Logie, which is awarded to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television for the previous year.

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.