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ManuBennett

Te Arawa, Ngāti Kahungunu
  • Actor
Manu-Bennett-Key-Image.jpg

Manu Bennett’s acting career has seen him battling Roman gladiators, teaching salsa, and creeping out both superheroes and the staff of Shortland Street. En route, Bennett has played numerous bad guys, both in New Zealand (The Hobbit trilogy, Muru), and in North America (DC Comics series Arrow, movie Death Race 2050). 

Screenography

The Gone
2023 As: Tamati Series
2022 As: Kimiora Film
The Viking Queen - The Beard Struggle
2021 Director, Producer, As: Dancing warrior Commercial
Pandora
2019 As: Leone Vokk Television
Death Race 2050
2017 As: Frankenstein Film

Biography

Manu Bennett was born in Rotorua, and spent much of his upbringing in Newcastle, Australia, after his Kiwi parents crossed the ocean when he was a baby. Since then Bennett has spent much of his career in Australia, punctuated by periods in his native Aotearoa.

“Being a gladiator, standing in an arena with a sword in your hand with five guys charging at you and you’re ready to chop every limb off, you’ve really got to give yourself up as an actor to really live that moment.”

Manu Bennett on acting in TV series Spartacus, The Dominion Post, 26 April 2011