Happy Birthday Manu!!
Happy Birthday to Kiwi actor Manu Bennett, who is 45 today!
Jonathan Manu Bennett was born on October 10, 1969 in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. His father Ted, of Māori descent, was a New Zealand singer and his mother Jean was an Australian fashion model (now we know where Manu receives his good looks!). When he was only a few months old, his family decided to move to Australia and he was raised mostly between Sydney and Newcastle. At age 17, he moved back to New Zealand to attend Te Aute College where he played on their rugby team. Following his passion of modern dancing, classical ballet and piano, he decided to quit rugby and attend university to study dance and drama. He moved to Los Angeles after winning a scholarship to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. A car accident that killed his mother and brother and put him in a two-week coma was a turning point for Manu in his career. He poured his raw emotions from his horrible event into his acting and in an interview he stated, “Acting was my route to survival.”
Manu made his TV debut on the teen Aussie drama Paradise Beach in 1993. He has also appeared alongside Lucy Lawless on the popular action-adventure series Xena: Warrior Princess and the Starz historical drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Some of his big-screen roles include the horror hit 30 Days of Night and action movies The Marine and The Condemned. In November 2012, Manu was cast in the first season of Arrow as Slade Wilson, and in March 2013 he was promoted to series regular for the second season.
Manu brings Azog the Defiler to life in all three instalments of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. He shared that he actually drew inspiration for the character of Azog in The Hobbit from the great white shark in the film Jaws.
“To me he looked like a shark, so when I played him I wanted to keep that sense of mystery to him so I watched Jaws to prepare,” he said.
He also shared that though he was only able to spend a little bit of time inhabiting the character, he really wanted to emphasize Azog’s affinity for his warg.
At last year’s DragonCon, Azog kept the audience laughing as he described his relationship with his warg. You can watch video of that panel here. And to find out what he named his warg (hint: it’s about as far from ferocious as it gets), make sure to read our story, All Agog to Hear Azog.
Despite his many roles, Manu is still best known as Crixus in Spartacus, as Azog in The Hobbit and Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in Arrow. He also LOVES to meet his fans and can be found at many conventions around the world! You can find out exactly where he will be appearing next over on our Cast At Cons page!
You can keep up with all of Manu’s latest adventures by following him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google +, and WhoSay.
The Middle-earth News Team is pleased to wish Manu a very Happy Birthday!
