Emmanuel was born in South Africa, where he grew up in the city of Johannesburg. As the son of Greek parents, Mike Castis and Maro Castis,he discovered a love for acting and performance at a very young age in kindergarten when he performed in nativity plays in the Greek language. However, it wasn't till later after he overcame his distraction of trying to save the natural universe from extinction, that a teacher of his suggested he study Drama. That lead him to study Drama at The University of The Witwatersrand,where he graduated with a postgraduate degree. His Debut professional performance was as 'Lennox' in 'Macbeth', but his breakthrough came in 1999, where he was cast to play a groundbreaking role in the daily series 'Isidingo'. Where he won a 2004 People Magazine Crystal Award for Best Actor in a soap series. As the lead male protagonist in popular Drama series 'Erfsondes' he gained two Best Actor in a Drama series nominations,two years in a row, for The SAFTA awards (The South African Film and Television Awards) Emmanuel is a household name in South Africa, and many parts of Africa,playing various roles on various series and also winning a celebrity reality competition, 'Strictly Come Dancing' (2008) the South African version of 'Dancing with The Stars' He has appeared in international series, "Wild at Heart' BBC and 'Black Sails' Starz. He has appeared in a few films, 'Cryptid', 'Eternity' and 'Tremors 5: Bloodlines', and he toured the world, in a touring cast of the Broadway hit musical 'Jersey Boys', as one of the leads 'Nick Massi'. Here he received great critical acclaim and a nomination for best actor in a musical for The Naledi Theatre Awards in South Africa. Emmanuel is also an accomplished singer and released an Album in 2008 "South of Nowhere', he soft released the single 'Stop Running' in 2011 and is releasing the latest single 'Alive' end of 2015.