Karl Urban

Birthday

1972-06-07

Place of Birth

Wellington, New Zealand

Biography

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.
Free Trial Channels
Karl Urban

Stream
Ben Schwartz
Movies & TV Shows Free

Plus full 80,000+ Prime Video Titles and more!

prime WATCH FREE

30-Day unlimited streaming

All Movies List

The Sea Beast

The Sea Beast

2022 7
The Sea Beast

as Jacob Holland (voice)

2022
Butcher

Butcher

2020 6.7
Butcher

as Billy Butcher

2020
The Boys

The Boys

2019 8.5
The Boys

as Billy Butcher

2019
Bent

Bent

2018 5.2
Bent

as Danny Gallagher

2018
Hangman

Hangman

2017 5.2
Hangman

as Detective Ruiney

2017
Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok

2017 7.9
Thor: Ragnarok

as Skurge / Executioner

2017
Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond

2016 7
Star Trek Beyond

as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

2016
The Loft

The Loft

2015 6.3
The Loft

as Vincent Stevens

2015
Riddick

Riddick

2013 6.4
Riddick

as Lord Vaako

2013
Dredd

Dredd

2012 7.1
Dredd

as Judge Dredd

2012
Priest

Priest

2011 5.7
Priest

as Black Hat

2011
RED

RED

2010 7
RED

as William Cooper

2010
Star Trek

Star Trek

2009 7.9
Star Trek

as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

2009
Comanche Moon

Comanche Moon

2008 7.1
Comanche Moon

as Woodrow F. Call

2008
Doom

Doom

2005 5.2
Doom

as John "Reaper" Grimm

2005
banner AD

Stream over
800,000 titles
with Prime Video

30-day Free Trial, cancel anytime

Try 30-Day Free