Theo Poulos
Theo Poulos (2021-present)
Matt Evans
Episodes: 7648-present
Date of Birth: c.2001
Parents: Dimitri & Cassandra* Poulos
Siblings: At least one**
Occupation: Salesman; Garage Assistant; Apprentice and later Qualified Mechanic; Lyrik lead singer
For Leah’s father (Theo’s grandfather), see Theo Poulos
The first-born nephew of Leah, and son of her oldest brother Dimitri, Theo turned up on Leah and Justin’s doorstep accompanied by Cash, who had pulled him over for speeding. He revealed his dad had kicked him out and said it was because they’d fallen out while working together. Leah learned from Dimitri that Theo had been scamming customers at his car dealership, selling them fake insurance and pocketing the money. Theo drove off, then turned up injured a week later, saying he’d got into a fight with two guys who tried to steal his car. Justin later forced him to admit the truth: He’d been beaten up by some of the people he scammed. Leah refused to let him stay at the house when people were after him but did arrange for him to stay at the motel.
Theo took an instant liking to Chloe when he met her and quickly volunteered to help her out with food deliveries when her boyfriend Ryder overslept. He accepted an offer from Justin to work at the garage but turned up late for his first day and then left early, claiming he had a migraine. He volunteered to help Chloe arrange Ryder’s 21st birthday party and to get Ryder to the club where the party was without him suspecting. However, his method was to abduct Ryder, lock him in his car boot and drive him there, which didn’t leave him in a party mood. As a result, Chloe spent most of the evening with Theo and they stayed out all night together. Ryder tried to warn him off Chloe and, after stopping Nikau having a go at Felicity and Anne in Salt, Theo told him that he and Chloe had spent the night together, refusing to elaborate. He let Bella accuse Chloe of sleeping with him in front of Ryder (who had actually already broken up with her) before saying he just meant they’d spent the night talking.
Theo was invited to move in with Leah and Justin, but got Ziggy offside at the garage by overcharging a customer by $200 and offering to split the money with her. He began not showing up to work and leaving the house in a mess. Leah finally challenged him and he was surprised to learn Justin had covered for him, agreeing to make more of an effort. The new start almost unravelled straightaway when Justin blew up at Theo when he innocently suggested throwing out a box of Mason’s old things. Leah explained Mason was Justin’s brother who had died and Theo cleared the air with him. He offered Ryder and Chloe a way to make easy money, showing them that he had uploaded the video of him kidnapping Ryder to a monetised channel and suggesting he and Ryder film and post a series of challenges. The first challenge selected was a chilli eating contest with Theo deliberately getting the hottest ones available. Ryder won the challenge but was left throwing up in the toilet and Theo took the opportunity to kiss Chloe. She assumed he only did it to wind up Ryder and kept quiet, but Theo admitted to Justin he really liked her.
Justin and Ryder realised Theo had been rigging the challenge selection by submitting the same thing five times, so Ryder chose the next challenge: Creative cocktails. Ryder served Theo a conveyor belt of disgusting cocktails and glued him to the seat but Theo drank them all without ill effect and simply slipped out of his trousers. Although he was declared the winner, he was disappointed that Chloe saw him as a joke and tried to improve her opinion of him by helping out with admin for her catering business. He and Ryder had a firewalking challenge and burned their feet when Cash interrupted them. Justin named Ryder the winner and when he taunted Theo over it, Theo responded by telling him about kissing Chloe, prompting him to pull out of the challenges.
Needing to do the challenges without Ryder, Theo tricked Nikau and stole the surf club’s ATV, taking it for a joyride. He returned home to a hostile reception from John and Justin, who pointed out he could be charged. John wanted him to work in the juice bar as punishment but it didn’t last long since he ended up in a fight with Nikau. Ryder approached him about doing the challenges together again as Justin tried to distract him by teaching him to surf. Justin bought Theo his own board which Ziggy tried to buy off him. Ryder suggested Ziggy and Theo have a challenge for the board and Theo accepted Ziggy’s offer to see who could change a tyre fastest. It was only after she’d won easily that she revealed she’d worked in a pit crew, which he considered cool.
Ryder suggested a challenge where he was buried in a coffin for five hours. Theo agreed to help (although the only food he provided him with was chillis) but went to the Diner for lunch instead of staying to keep watch over him, also getting distracted checking on an upset Chloe. While on his way back to Ryder, he fell and was knocked out, with his leg caught in barbed wire.
He was unable to reach his phone and both he and Ryder spent the night trapped until they were found by Roo and Justin. With Ryder unconscious from lack of oxygen, both Alf and Roo were furious with Theo. Theo visited Ryder to check on him before being thrown out by Alf.
He received another serve from Alf in the Diner and was approached by Ryder to try and heal the rift. However, Ryder taking him to apologise failed to work out and he ended up being arrested for the ATV theft. He didn’t argue with the charge, acknowledging he was guilty, and suggested he and Ryder stay away from each other. He was given community service and accused Alf of laying all the blame on him instead of looking at his own role. He nearly left town but Justin talked him out of it and Alf later apologised to him. Theo encouraged Justin to make things up with Alf and also advised Ryder to do the same. He had a brief panic on learning his community service papers had been sent to his old address in the city, fearing his dad would find out, and confided in John that his dad used to beat him. He suggested he and Ryder record videos of everyone’s recollection of Ari after his death. Chloe appreciated it but Mia was angry with them.
He was shocked when he learned Leah had gone to see Dimitri and worried she and Justin wanted rid of him. Justin instead offered him an apprenticeship at the garage but he remained concerned about Leah’s return, coming close to leaving town, and was relieved when she told him Dimitri wanted nothing to do with him. However, Dimitri then turned up, revealing Theo’s mother Cassandra had left him and trying to get Theo to come home. Theo drove off and ended up having sex with Chloe before spending the night in the garage. He was stunned when Chloe told him their liaison was meaningless and accused him of hassling her, then punched Dimitri during an argument. He refused to explain himself but John filled in Leah and Justin, who supported Theo. He and Leah went to see Cassandra but as soon as he came back, he was confronted by Dimitri, his fuse as short as ever, with only Ryder’s unexpected arrival stopping things getting violent. He agreed to meet Dimitri at Salt, where Dimitri insisted he only wanted what was best for him. Theo initially believed him until he overheard him threatening Leah and declaring he’d say whatever was needed to get Theo to come home. When he found out Dimitri had hit Justin and given him concussion, Theo confronted his father, who tried to force him to leave town with him. Cash stepped in and, when Leah reported Dimitri for assaulting Justin, Theo made a statement about Dimitri’s abuse of him. Charged and bailed, Dimitri said an awkward goodbye to Theo before leaving town.
Theo’s good mood working at the garage dissipated when he forgot to hand in his first assignment. He came close to dropping out but Ziggy took it upon herself to mentor him. He was the only person to be excited about Ryder’s plans to become a croupier and ended up being the one to comfort Chloe after her manipulative behaviour came to light, understanding the effect trauma could have on a person. He borrowed Justin’s guitar as part of a romantic picnic, explaining he had taught himself to play but Dimitri had smashed the guitar he saved up for, considering it a waste of time. Justin gave him a spare, saying he was welcome to play in their house.
He was confused when Chloe invited him for a drink so brought along Becky, a friend from TAFE, only for Chloe to quickly leave. After they cleared up the misunderstanding, they had a second attempt at drinks and kissed. He was mortified when Leah invited Chloe round for dinner and then questioned her about her intentions. He accused Leah of ruining things for him but the experience cemented the pair as a couple. Leah and Justin had a word about Chloe spending all her time at the house but Theo wasn’t able to bring himself to say anything, resulting in Justin telling her rather bluntly. They soon got over it but then Chloe invited Theo to a family barbecue at hers. Theo was extremely nervous about spending time with Nikau and Tane as her boyfriend, which they played up to, but took it in good spirits when they pushed him in the pool.
He struggled with his TAFE assignment and was frustrated when Justin wrote it for him. Unwilling to hand in someone else’s work as his own, he did it again from scratch, earning an 82% distinction. His elation disappeared when he learned he was being investigated for plagiarism and could be thrown off the course, since Justin had told TAFE that he wrote the assignment. He showed the tutor the assignment Justin wrote but still had to sit an exam to prove he knew the subject. He was pleased when he passed and was cleared of all wrongdoing However, he learned Justin couldn’t continue as mentor. He was delighted when Ziggy took over the role.
He was intrigued when Lyrik, a band who had just got a regular gig at Salt, advertised for a new lead singer but Ziggy insisted he needed to concentrate on his apprenticeship. However, when Justin told him the auditions had failed to find anyone, he dashed down there and managed to wow them. His mood was darkened, however, when he rang Chloe to tell her only for her to announce she was going away for a while. His first gig went well but Justin worried he wouldn’t be able to handle the workload of both the apprenticeship and the gigs. After talking it over with bandmate Kirby, he decided to give it a try. He finally got in touch with Chloe, only for her to break up with him.
After going to his first gig with the band, Theo spent all night working on a song with Kirby, after which they kissed. Although they were both interested in a relationship, when bandmates Eden and Remi found out, they insisted on a rule against dating bandmates. Remi managed to lose the band’s money trying to buy a new van, meaning they couldn’t travel for gigs, so Justin offered to buy another one. After celebrating the delivery of the van, Theo and Kirby spent the night together but Kirby told him it couldn’t happen again. However, she changed her mind after he serenaded her and they began seeing each other in secret, although Justin quickly found them out. In order to maintain their cover, Kirby encouraged him to chat up another girl in front of Remi but he backed off when Kirby wanted him to kiss her. He decided to call the relationship off but Kirby kissed him in front of Remi and Eden, who accepted the relationship.
After being told to do PR, he was convinced to revive his old online channel and post a video of him and Kirby singing. It attracted the attention of online music magazine editor Tully Dixon, who asked to do an interview. They tried and failed to contact Remi and Eden and ended up having to do the interview on their own, but were left embarrassed when it turned out to focus entirely on them and their relationship. After struggling to organise the band schedule, they hired Justin as manager. When Justin’s negotiations saw him lose their gigs at Salt, Theo convinced the others to give him a chance. After an unsuccessful gig at the Reefton Lakes Palace, Mackenzie agreed to a more favourable deal in return for a proper contract. He and the rest of Lyrik helped Tane propose to Felicity. They made plans to shoot a music video at the lighthouse, after which Theo was concerned to find Kirby messaging her ex-boyfriend Bob Forsyth and agreeing to meet. Although he was unhappy about her keeping it secret, he accepted it was her choice. However, Kirby decided not to go.
Shortly after Theo and Kirby had done a radio interview, Bob turned up wanting to see Kirby. When Theo heard Bob was going to be singing with the band, he refused to turn up to the gig, leading to it being cancelled. Kirby told him she’d have put a stop to Bob’s performance if Theo had told her he objected. Mackenzie was angry with the loss of earnings from the cancelled gig and Theo promised he’d pay her back. He and Justin ended up putting on a free gig at Salt to draw in enough of a crowd to boost profits.
Despite having an assignment due, he spent the day with Kirby, as well as giving Marilyn advice on a charity golf tournament and signing up for John’s team. He then learned the assignment was due the next day rather than the next week as he thought and lost his temper with Kirby. He got the assignment done with Ziggy’s help and apologised to Kirby, admitting that he loved her. When Justin found out he was a golfer, he expected him to ditch John and join his team and Theo ultimately felt he had to side with Justin. He was annoyed to discover Justin had sabotaged John’s team’s buggy and deliberately took more shots than he needed to until Justin agreed to own up. They were found out anyway and disqualified. After attending Tane and Felicity’s bucks and hen nights, Theo was concerned when Kirby spoke about how she pictured her wedding, admitting to Leah and Justin that he didn’t see himself ever getting married. He admitted as much to Kirby, who didn’t see it as an issue, and confided in her about Dimitri’s treatment of him. He wasn’t sure how to react when he received a message from a fan and comforted Kirby after Remi was injured by Jacob Cameron.
He rushed to the hospital on hearing Leah had been injured in a car accident. He was given a painting done by a fan girl that had been delivered to the garage and sent her a photo of himself with it as a thank you. He received messages from her about his favourite food and colour and had a box of doughnuts delivered to the house. He sought advice from Rose, who told him to not engage and block the number. With Remi and Eden both recovering from injury, he and Kirby were convinced to do Salt gigs on their own.
Theo met Justin’s daughter Ava when she came to stay with them after an argument with her mother and Kirby warned him she had a crush on him. Despite this, he continued to indulge her and defend her to Justin. He did draw the line when she tried to accompany him and Kirby to a gig she was too young to get into, resulting in her disappearing and turning up at the house. Kirby showed him a scrap book proving Ava was the obsessed fan, which he shared with Leah. Justin dismissed it but Theo didn’t feel comfortable around Ava and decided to move in with Kirby until she left. He was horrified to learn Ava had taken photos of herself in his room wearing his shirt, worrying Justin would think something had gone on between them, but Justin apologised for not taking things seriously. He and Justin confronted Ava together, where Ava tried to insist she and Theo were a couple before vandalising Kirby’s house. Theo told her they’d never be together and she responded by getting in a van with a stranger, Conor. He tried to contact her on social media and she sent a message indicating she was in trouble and her location, which he showed to Justin. This led to Justin assaulting Conor before finding out Ava had lied. Ava blamed Theo for calling the police but he told her they needed to stick together for Justin’s sake. He ended up driving her back to the city. With Ziggy having left town, he decided to give up his apprenticeship and concentrate on the music. He testified at Justin’s trial but was forced to admit that Ava had a history of lying and Justin shouldn’t have believed her. Justin eventually received a community order.
He met Andrew Lawrence, a teenager Justin and Leah had taken in after finding him abandoned, and after a rocky start was soon joining him in music and trips to the beach. He set up a missing persons page to track down his family and annoyed Kirby by voting in favour of Remi’s plan to cancel a tour and enter Battle of the Bands. He showed his page to Cash, who was worried about attracting the attention of the cult that had kidnapped Andrew and told him to redirect enquiries to the police. Despite this, the page attracted the attention of the cult’s leader Margot Dafoe, who managed to get Theo to come away with her by impersonating his mum. Justin had to stop Theo from going to the cult’s compound.
The fact that he’d bailed on Lyrik when finding out didn’t impress Kirby and when he suggested they take a break, she broke up with him. Their break-up disrupted the band’s rehearsals but he managed to get her to stick at it. He felt nervous before the contest, throwing up outside the venue, but ended up performing well enough for them to get the audience vote, only to pull out when Felicity was raped. With Andrew having been recovered from the cult, Theo accompanied him to a meeting with the DPP to give a statement. He tried to reassure him over the fact most of the cult were still free and talk him out of leaving town, pointing out the cult might come after them whether Andrew was with them or not. He shared Leah and Justin’s concerns about Andrew spending all his time watching security camera feeds. Theo missed preparation for Lyrik’s album recording to help deal with Andrew meeting his sister Tegan but managed to make it through the first session.
Andrew confided in him that he wanted to live with Tegan but didn’t want to let Justin and Leah down. Theo told them and Justin convinced Andrew to go with Tegan. Theo was shocked to learn Kirby was a surfer, something she’d never mentioned when they were together, and only slightly reassured when she confided in him about an accident she’d had that had prompted her to give up surfing. They attended the launch for the album together where Kirby came to his rescue when he froze up during the Q&A session. Theo was left depressed by the incident, especially when it became a meme, and ended up accusing Kirby of stealing the spotlight. He apologised and was then the last to learn Kirby had been offered a solo career. He told her to do what would make her happy, which turned out to be leaving the band. He was less supportive however when permission to use Kirby’s songs was withdrawn.
Theo ended up at a loss and managed to fall out with Eden when he tried to get Mackenzie to hire him for an acoustic session at Salt on his own. Justin took him to see Forrest without any prior warning and suggested Forrest sign Theo to his label and Justin manage him for them. Although Forrest offered him a deal, Theo announced (although not before getting punched by Remi when he jumped to conclusions) that he didn’t want to be a solo artist but to be in a band, and went back to his apprenticeship as a mechanic. He found himself caught in the crossfire between Marilyn and Roo when the latter was discharged from hospital following a bombing by Stunning Organics, agreeing to stay with Roo for a while when she wanted rid of Marilyn. He attended Kirby’s single launch and was pleased when it prompted her to decide to come back to Lyrik. He learned Justin was in a critical condition in hospital after Vita Nova kidnapped him and Leah and left them to die. Upon his recovery, Theo and the rest of Lyrik asked him to manage them again.
Justin got Theo to go to a shop and take photos of engagement rings so he could pick one out for Leah, although Theo was left mortified on casually mentioning he was buying it for his aunt. He agreed to help Justin with the wedding preparations and attended Lyrik’s comeback gig. He had trouble getting back into song writing with Kirby but suggested they write a song for Leah and Justin’s wedding. He was the first to learn the wedding had been postponed as Leah struggled with a sleeping disorder and was stunned when Leah told him Justin was working for Vita Nova and they needed to flee town. He convinced her to go to Rose, then told Justin, but this resulted in Leah running off, Theo found her threatening Justin with a knife and called Bree, who talked Leah down, resulting in her checking herself into a clinic. He returned from a visit to his mother to find Justin was now helping Kirby with the song that was supposed to be for the wedding, but was more upset that he’d failed to spot what was going on with Leah.
With Remi in hospital and Eden recovering from being kidnapped, Theo suggested he and Kirby perform alone at a fundraiser Xander was arranging. He learned Leah was returning to town but would be staying with Alf and Marilyn. She quickly let him visit her but he was frustrated when she and Justin started using him as a go-between. He got to know Valerie Beaumont, a friend of Leah’s from the clinic who had followed her to the Bay, when they all shared dinner together. Valerie confided in him that her family had cut ties with her after her brother was killed in a car crash when she distracted him after he picked her up drunk. He readily agreed to Valerie moving in with them along with Leah and invited her to the Moonlight at Salt event where he and Kirby were performing. After finding out he’d failed a TAFE assignment by missing a question, and arguing with Kirby, he took a pill Valerie offered him. She guided him through his high, after which they both took drugs and slept together. He then used his share of the money from the gig to buy more drugs.
Valerie convinced him to talk Kirby into letting him do a print interview. He nearly forgot about it on the day but gave a good account despite not remembering anything of it. When Justin set up a radio interview for him, he panicked and asked Valerie for a pill to get him through it. Valerie refused but eventually gave him the number of her dealer. The positions were then reversed when a distressed Valerie begged him for a pill. When Justin picked up on tension between them and Kirby, Theo told him that he and Valerie were together. He was concerned when Valerie claimed to have booked a counselling appointment at the clinic and instead dragged him off to have fun in the city with her.
He told Valerie he loved her but it sent her into a panic, and he began palming the pills she gave him. He confided in Kirby about the difficulty of getting Valerie off the drugs when she didn’t want his help. Valerie was wary of him talking to others and insisted he take drugs with her to prove they were in it together. When they ran out of both money and drugs, Theo got Justin to gave him some money, supposedly for band equipment, to buy some more. He got into an argument with Kirby when she found out, and although he was best man at Justin and Leah’s wedding, Justin confronted him about the drugs at the reception and demanded Valerie leave the house before they came back from honeymoon. Theo told Valerie to get rid of the drugs but when the band went to pick their van up next day, Theo panicked when Rose tried to pull them over for a faulty backlight and sped off. When he finally stopped, Rose found the drugs, which Valerie had hidden in his guitar case. He tried to take responsibility but Rose insisted on charging all of them. He learned only Justin could get the van back which led to Justin and Leah returning early. Theo tried to defend Valerie to them but they insisted she had to go. On learning she had taken responsibility for the drugs with the police, he wanted to help her but Justin and Leah refused to help him. Remi convinced him to concentrate on helping himself and he agreed to go into a rehab programme.
His first counselling session made him realise he was taking on too much and the only way to significantly lighten his workload was to leave the band. He changed his mind, not wanting to let the rest of the band down, so Justin and Remi convinced him to take three or four months off. He was asked to write a letter to Leah and Justin but was unable to work out what to say and lamented how much trouble he’d caused them. They convinced him their lives were better with him around. After passing his mechanics course, he went out with friends to celebrate. He helped Mali perform a partial smoking ceremony on the beach after Stevie Marlpw died and helped Roo and Marilyn organise a barbecue to get rid of surplus stock from the Diner. He and Justin found some gardening supplies washed up on the beach which John tried to convince them were for manufacturing drugs. At Justin’s urging, he posted on social media to bring people back to the Diner after it was closed down for benzine poisoning. He was left to run the garage while Justin was in the city with Ava and was the one that found Mali’s brother Iluka after he was beaten up.
*In Dimitri’s earlier stints in the early 2000s, his wife was named as Melinda. By 2022, her name had been changed to Cassandra.
**Although Dimitri explained that they were expecting their third child in 2003, there has been no mention of Theo having siblings as yet.