- Born
- Birth nameKarl-Heinz Urban
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Karl Urban now lives in Auckland. Born on June 7, 1972, he is the son of a leather-goods manufacturer (who had hoped that Karl would follow in his footsteps). His first acting role was when he was 8 -- he had a line on a television series. However, he did not act again until after high school. He was offered a role in the NZ soap opera Shortland Street (1992) as he was preparing to attend Victoria University. After appearing on the series for the 1993-1994 season, he attended the university for one year, then left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland, where a number of guest roles in NZ television followed. One of his first roles was that of a heroin addict in the drama series Shark in the Park (1989). He was in a movie as well, entitled Once in Chunuck Bay (aka Chunuk Bair (1992)). Other television roles followed, including a guest-starring role in the series White Fang (1993). Karl's biggest roles include Éomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek (2009), William Cooper in Red (2010) and Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012).- IMDb mini biography by: AvidDark <jdh@g33k.net>
- SpouseNatalie Wihongi(September 16, 2004 - 2014) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenHunter Urban
- ParentsJürgen UrbanLorraine Urban
- Deep commanding voice
- Dark intense staring eyes
- Often plays wisecracking, highly adept characters
- On the set of The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), he passed the time by playing Dungeons & Dragons with Vin Diesel, Judi Dench and Thandiwe Newton.
- His accent as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek (2009) was so reminiscent of DeForest Kelley that it reportedly moved Leonard Nimoy (who starred alongside Kelley in the original series and films) to tears.
- He named his son "Indiana" after Harrison Ford's iconic character Indiana Jones, of whom Karl is a huge fan.
- Good friends with co-stars Viggo Mortensen from The Lord of the Rings and Renée O'Connor from Xena: Warrior Princess (1995).
- He is, and has almost always been, very active. He worked on his aunt and uncle's farm for many years doing odd jobs. For filming the Lord of the Rings movies, he realized that Eomer was a consummate horseman and he was nowhere near that level, so he invested a lot of time learning: six to eight weeks, five days a week, two hours a day. He wanted to learn to neck rein, a method of steering a horse using one hand while leaving the other hand free to wield a sword. He wanted to be so at one with the horse that he wasn't conscious or concerned about what the horse was doing. In addition, he also enjoys indoor rock climbing.
- [on his fondest memory of working with Peter Jackson while shooting the Lord of the Rings trilogy] Peter's really open to the humor in the day-to-day. One time, we were referencing a line in the book, "We counted all the slain and despoiled them, then we piled the carcasses and burned them." Of course, we went on all sorts of disgusting tangents about what else these Rohan soldiers did to the poor Orcs.
- [on a Dredd (2012) sequel] It's not off the agenda. Clearly everyone has woken up to the fact that an audience has found this movie and loves it. It's entirely possible, and if people want to see another installment then they should be vocal about that, because it can happen. The power of fandom can resurrect projects. In fact, that's what happened with Star Trek (1966). They weren't going to do a third season until fans did a letter-writing campaign and they continued that series.
- When I work, I try to eat as much vegetarian as possible. When I do Cupid, I eat vegetarian because I need the energy. I've got those wings on my back.
- I don't believe I could work as effectively at what I do without the support of my wife.
- I like the time frame involved in being an actor.
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