On Home and Away, he was Darren Nasser, a swarthy detective investigating a chemical attack at the Summer Bay Surf Club.

Since his time in The Bay, actor Julian Maroun has appeared in a range of other popular TV series, including acclaimed political drama Total Control and the comedy Aftertaste.

He is soon to be seen in the upcoming movie The Correspondent, the story of Australian journalist Peter Greste who was jailed in Egypt on trumped-up terrorism charges.

But it’s not the film and television roles that Maroun considers his most important.

Away from the screen, the 30-year-old Sydney actor has assumed responsibilities for his brother Luke, who was born with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

The pair is inseparable, with 27-year-old Luke now even a celebrity in his own right — his myriad of achievements highlighted on social media.

With Maroun and his finacée Elise playing a pivotal role in Luke’s care, the young adult has made incredible strides despite his twin conditions, which primarily impact his speech and movement.

He is now able to communicate in a simple way, and not only walks more easily but also engages in regular dance classes.

Recently, the WWE fan even took his first plane rides, after the American professional wrestling association invited him as a special guest to its Elimination Chamber event in Perth.

And at the Sydney cafe where he is a regular with his big brother, Luke affectionately offers other patrons a cheery high five and tells them that, since just the day before, “I missed you”.

Luke’s ability to live a fuller and more sociable life wasn’t always a given.

“It was very scary at the time,” Maroun says of the uncertainty his parents felt when his brother was born.

“We didn’t know if he was going to adapt normally as a baby and if he was even going to make it past a certain age.

“There are a lot of health complications associated with his condition.

“As an adult now, he is able to speak and communicate, and to walk with a fitted leg splint, but he still has the capacity to move freely despite his physical limitations.”

But Maroun says his younger brother has proven more about what he can than can’t do.

“He’s shown how many glass ceilings he’s willing to break, and how much he’s willing to learn and expand and evolve,” Maroun says proudly.

“I’m seeing him do things that a lot of the professionals told us with some certainty that he would never be able to do — including dance, engaging in multi-sentence conversations with people, and just gaining a large amount of independence.”

The changes have largely come about since Maroun assumed a more active role in Luke’s care; before the start of COVID, he had been singularly cared for by the brothers’ parents.

During lockdowns, Maroun and Elise welcomed Luke into their “bubble”, as he began to spend more time away from the home he had always known.

“It’s been hard for my parents to let go of many of the more nuanced aspects of Luke’s care, particularly because caring for him is so comprehensive — it’s always been their life,” Maroun says.

“There are so many little things we might take for granted that they’ve had to focus and work through with him since he was a very young child and still, to this day, as an adult.

“There‘s the small things — like having to cut food up a certain way or having to understand and listen very closely to what he’s trying to say and decipher what he’s trying to communicate — to personal care, and assisting him completing daily tasks.

“It’s a constant supervision, given the difficulties of communication and physical limitations that he has.

“It can feel like a full-time thing, but I guess I don’t know any different because that’s what we’ve done my whole life, and we’ve all done so happily.”