Background
Smit-McPhee was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sonja and Andy McPhee. His father is an actor and former professional wrestler.
Smit-McPhee was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sonja and Andy McPhee. His father is an actor and former professional wrestler.
He is best known for his roles as The Boy in The Road, Owen in Let Maine In, Norman Babcock in ParaNorman, Alexander in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Smit-McPhee will portray a young Nightcrawler in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse. He will also play Will Burrows (the main protagonist) in Tunnels The Movie.
Smit-McPhee"s first feature film role was in Romulus, My Father, which garnered him the 2007 American Film Institute Award for Best Young Actor as well as a Best Actor nomination.
In 2012, he filmed The Congress. The film premiered at the 2013 Directors" Fortnight at the prestigious Cannes Festival.
Smit-McPhee then starred in ParaNorman, in which he lent his voice as the lead role of Norman. Later the same year, Smit-McPhee had a role in Dead Europe, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Festival.
His next role came in The Wilderness of James in the title role of James.
He also starred in A Birder"s Guide to Everything, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Festival, and played Benvolio in a film adaption of Romeo and Juliet. He co-starred in the 20th Century Fox film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). The project reunited him with director Matt Reeves, with whom he previously worked with on the film Let Maine In.
In 2013, Smit-McPhee filmed the action science fiction film Young Ones.
The film premiered at the Sundance Festival in January 2014. Soon after, he appeared in Slow West, which was released in 2015.
In March 2014, he was cast in the Nine Network"s eight-part drama series Gallipoli. Which was broadcast in February and March 2015, the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
The series is produced by Endemol Australia and was shot over a three-month period starting in March 2014.
On February 17, 2015, Bryan Singer announced that he cast Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse. Smit-McPhee lives in Los Angeles, California, with his girlfriend.