Mena Massoud has joined the cast of Open Heart, a television drama that will air on TeenNick in the US (and on YTV in Canada) on January 20th, 2015. Open Heart explores a Dylan Blake’s (Karis Cameron) pursuit in investigating the disappearance of her own father while she volunteers at a hospital. Mena plays Jared Malik, the head of the Youth Volunteer program who “plays by the rules” and will most likely butt heads with the more rebellious Dylan Blake. In this interview, Mena talks about the upcoming series as well as his career as an Egyptian-born actor pursuing acting in Canada. Of course, we also find out which super hero he would want to be if he had to choose.

Your character in Open Heart is described as having “layers of jerk” but with a secret… without giving too much away, what about your character that compelled you to take on the role?

I’ll start off by saying that I think I’m a nice person, but sometimes when I’m introduced to people that don’t really know me, they might get the impression that I’m a little standoffish and that confuses them, so they see me as a jerk. Jared, the character I play on Open Heart, takes that to the next level. So that was really fun. It was like playing myself to the next degree and getting to explore that side of me. Many people might watch the show and not like Jared at first glance but I’ve grown to really like him and understand there is more going on under the surface, like most of us.