Milo Ventimiglia has admitted he and his friends make fun of his status as a sex symbol.

Speaking at the BAFTA Television Awards after Heroes picked up the Best International Show prize, the actor said he finds “humour” in his heartthrob image.

“My friends make fun of me a lot more nowadays because of it. I’m just a normal guy with a day job like anybody else to them,” he said.

“When you get magazines saying, ‘Hey, that guy’s sexy’ or people scream it from their cars as they’re driving by - my friends and I find a lot of humour in it.”

Ventimiglia’s co-star Adrian Pasdar, who plays his brother Nathan Petrelli on the hit show, said he found it “silly” that people think of him as sexy.

Ventimiglia disagreed adding: “It’s not so silly. I get to stand close to him in every scene we do and we’re always touching. He is a sexy man.”