Alexander Michaeletos was born in South Africa and made his acting debut as Xan in the animal adventure film Duma (2005), a film about a young boy's friendship with a cheetah. Alex was discovered by the casting directors after an exhaustive international search that took them to New York, London, Canada, Chicago, and finally to to his home country of South Africa.Alex's own home life very much resembles the life of his big-screen character's Xan. Not only are their names very similar but, like Xan in the film, Alex too resides on a South African farm surrounded by lions, cheetahs, leopards, African wild dogs and lots of antelope. However, while Xan was an only child, Alex himself has five siblings.