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Cliff Curtis
Born	Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis 27 July 1968 (1968-07-27) (age 41) Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1991–present

Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis (born 27 July 1968) is a New Zealand actor of Māori descent who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and is currently appearing in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films.^[1]

Biography

Curtis, one of nine children, was born in Paraparaumu, in the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of an amateur dancer.^[2]. He received his secondary education at Edmund Rice College, Rotorua (Now named John Paul College). Curtis is of Maori descent and his tribal affiliations are Te Arawa and Ngati Hauiti,^[3] but on film has portrayed a range of ethnicities, including Latin American and Arab characters. He has appeared as a character actor in many Hollywood films, while back home in New Zealand he is usually the main star.

As a boy he studied mau rākau, a traditional Maori form of taiaha fighting with Maori elder Mita Mohi on Mokoia Island, which nurtured his abilities as a performer in kapa haka. He later performed as a breakdancer and then competitively in rock'n'roll revival dance competitions.

He guards his personal life closely, but has two children ^[4], and in late 2009 he married^[5] in a lavish but private ceremony at his home marae.

Career

He started acting in amateur theatre productions of the musicals Fiddler on the Roof and The Man of La Mancha with the Kapiti Players and the Mantis Cooperative Theatre Company before attending The New Zealand Drama School and Teatro Dimitri Scoula in Switzerland. He worked in a number of New Zealand theatre companies, including Downstage, Mercury Theatre, Bats Theatre, and Centre Point. He appeared in stage productions of Happy End, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, The Cherry Orchard, Porgy and Bess, Weeds, Macbeth, Serious Money, and The End of the Golden Weather.

His first feature film role was in the Oscar-nominated New Zealand film The Piano. Other notable New Zealand film roles were Once Were Warriors, Desperate Remedies, River Queen and Whale Rider.

Since then he has starred opposite Anthony Hopkins, Eddie Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey and George Clooney in films such as Three Kings, Blow, Bringing Out the Dead, Sunshine and Training Day. His international reputation grew further in 2003, when he was one of the leads in the internationally popular New Zealand film Whale Rider.

In 2004 with producer Ainsley Gardiner, he formed the independent film production company Whenua Films.^[6] The goals of the company are to support the growth of the New Zealand indigenous filmmaking scene, and to be supportive of local short filmmakers. He and Gardiner were appointed to manage the development and production of the Short Films Fund for 2005/2006 by The New Zealand Film Commission. They have produced several shorts under the new company banner, notably Two Cars, One Night, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2005, and the successful Hawaiki by director Mike Jonathan in 2006. Both short films have circulated through many of the prestigious international film festivals like the Berlinale. At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Miramax Films bought US distribution rights to their first feature film Eagle vs Shark.

He also plays Fire Lord Ozai in M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, due to be released in 2010.

He is currently playing the character "Rabbit" in the NBC TV drama "Trauma"^[7]

Film and television

• Under Cover (1991) (TV)
• The Piano (1993)
• Desperate Remedies (1993)
• Kahu & Maia (1994)
• Once Were Warriors (1994)
• Rapa Nui (1994)
• Hercules in the Underworld (1994) (TV)
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - "As Darkness Falls" (1994)
• Chicken (1996)
• Mananui (1996)
• City Life (1996) (TV)
• The Chosen (1998) (TV film)
• Deep Rising
• Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
• Virus (1999)
• Three Kings (1999)
• Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
• The Insider (1999)
• Jubilee (2000)
• Blow (2001)
• Training Day (2001)
• The Majestic (2001)
• Collateral Damage (2002)
• Point of Origin (2002 (TV film)
• Whale Rider (2002)
• Runaway Jury (2003)
• Traffic (2004) (TV miniseries)
• Spooked (2004)
• Heinous Crime (2004)
• The Pool (2005)
• River Queen (2005)
• The Fountain (2006)
• Sunshine (2007)
• Fracture (2007)
• Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
• 10,000 BC (2008)
• Push (2009)
• Crossing Over (2009)
• Trauma (TV series) (2009)
• The Last Airbender (2010)

References

External links

• Cliff Curtis at the Internet Movie Database
• Cliff Curtis on NZ On Screen