Image of Karl Urban

Karl Urban

He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess. He played Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick, the Russian assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy, and Ghost in Pathfinder and won acclaim for his performances in New Zealand films The Price of Milk and Out of the Blue. His father, a German immigrant, owned a leather goods retail store, and his mother once worked for Film Facilities in Wellington, through which the young Urban was exposed to New Zealand cinema and developed an interest in the film industry. 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', but he did not act professionally again until after high school. He attended Wellington College in 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 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.


Read bio at tmdb | Read bio at Wikipedia
Born:
Jun 7, 1972 In Wellington - New Zealand
Movie/TV Credits:
44
First Appeared:
In the movie Chunuk Bair 1992-04-25
Latest Project:
Movie Mortal Kombat 2 2025-10-23
Known For
Filmography
Movie Mortal Kombat 2 Johnny Cage 2025-10-23
Series ARK: The Animated Series Bob (voice) 2024-03-21
Movie The Sea Beast Jacob Holland (voice) 2022-06-24
Series The Boys Billy Butcher 2019-07-25
Movie Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Stormtrooper (uncredited) 2019-12-18
Movie Bent Danny Gallagher 2018-03-09
Movie Hangman Detective Ruiney 2017-12-22
Movie Thor: Ragnarok Skurge 2017-10-02
Movie Acts of Vengeance Strode 2017-10-27
Movie Pete's Dragon Gavin 2016-08-10
Movie Star Trek Beyond Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy 2016-07-07
Movie Building Star Trek Himself 2016-09-04
Movie 50 Years of Star Trek Self 2016-08-14
Movie For the Love of Spock Self 2016-09-09
Movie The Loft Vincent Stevens 2014-10-14
Movie Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD Self 2014-09-19
Movie Lennon or McCartney Self (archive footage) 2014-12-12
Movie Star Trek Into Darkness Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy 2013-05-05
Movie Riddick Lord Vaako 2013-09-02
Series Almost Human John Kennex 2013-11-17
Movie Walking with Dinosaurs Uncle Zack (voice) 2013-12-18
Movie Dredd Judge Dredd 2012-09-07
Movie Priest Black Hat 2011-05-05
Movie And Soon the Darkness Michael 2010-02-25
Movie RED William Cooper 2010-10-13
Movie Star Trek Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy 2009-05-06
Movie Black Water Transit Earl Pike 2009-05-13
Series Comanche Moon Woodrow F. Call 2008-01-13
Movie Pathfinder Ghost 2007-01-11
Movie Out of the Blue Nick Harvey 2006-10-12
Movie Doom John "Reaper" Grimm 2005-10-20
Movie The Chronicles of Riddick Vaako 2004-06-11
Movie The Bourne Supremacy Kirill 2004-07-23
Movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Éomer 2003-12-17
Movie Ghost Ship Munder 2002-10-25
Movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Éomer 2002-12-18
Movie The Irrefutable Truth About Demons Harry Ballard 2000-05-01
Movie The Price of Milk Rob 2000-10-13
Movie Heaven Sweeper 1999-04-29
Movie Via Satellite Paul 1998-10-15
Series Xena: Warrior Princess Caesar 1995-09-04
Series Riding High James Westwood 1995-12-31
Series White Fang David 1993-09-17
Movie Chunuk Bair Wellington soldier 1992-04-25