Karl Urban is a New Zealand actor. He is best known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.He is famous for like a sturdy lead and character actor with a natural affinity for physical roles.
Education
Urban attended St Mark's Church School, where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line in one episode of the New Zealand television series 'Pioneer Woman'. Though continuing to take part in school stage productions, he did not act professionally again until after high school.
Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand. His father, a German immigrant, owned a leather goods store, and his mother once worked for Film Facilities in Wellington. Through his mother, the young Urban was exposed to classic New Zealand cinema, and developed an interest in the film industry.[1] Urban attended St Mark's Church School, where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line in one episode of the New Zealand television series 'Pioneer Woman'. Though continuing to take part in school stage productions, he did not act professionally again until after high school.
He attended Wellington College from 1986–1990, then Victoria University of Wellington in the Bachelor of Arts programme for one year, but left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he appeared in several local commercials,landed several theatre roles in the Wellington area, and eventually he moved to Auckland, where he was offered many guest roles in local shows (one of which was playing a heroin addict in the police drama Shark in the Park). The role which launched him to local fame was that of gay paramedic Jamie Forrest in the hit New Zealand TV series Shortland Street. He appeared on the show for the 1993–1994 season.
Urban then moved to Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia in 1995, returning to New Zealand the following year
Career
As well as appearing in films and television shows, Urban had various roles in theatre productions and TV advertisements. In February/March 1998, he was in a play called The Herbal Bed at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland. In August 1998, he played Mark Antony in Auckland Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The following year he starred in the Auckland Theatre Company's production of the New Zealand classic Foreskin's Lament.
Urban was seen on the internationally syndicated American TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and on its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess, in which he played the recurring roles of both Cupid and Julius Caesar from 1996 to 2001. He also made an appearance as Mael in the episode Altared States from the first season of Xena. Both shows were filmed in New Zealand. In 2001 he appeared in the offbeat rural romance The Price of Milk, for which he received his first nomination at the New Zealand Qantas Film and Television Awards. Urban later won acclaim for his portrayal of policeman Nick Harvey in Out of the Blue, a dramatisation of New Zealand's Aramoana massacre, for which he won the Qantas Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2008.
Urban next appeared as CIA agent William Cooper in RED, adapted from the DC Comics graphic novel of the same name and co-starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. He portrayed Black Hat, a villainous priest-turned-vampire, in the film adaption of the Korean manhwa Priest, released in 3-D in 2011.
In 2012, Urban starred as law-enforcing comic book hero Judge Dredd in the movie Dredd. In an interview with Shave Magazine, Urban described it as a "high-octane, action-fueled film... about the day in the life of Dredd." The film was directed by Pete Travis, with a script by Alex Garland. Though it underperformed at the box office, Dredd was well-received by critics.
Urban will next be seen in the ensemble thriller Loft, a remake of the Belgian film of the same name. Filmed in New Orleans and Belgium, it is helmed by the director of the 2008 original, Erik Van Looy.[16] He has completed filming on the sequel to Star Trek, Star Trek into Darkness, which will be released May 17, 2013.