Manu Bennett

Biography:

Actor Jonathan Manu Bennett was born in Australia and New Zealand on October 10, 1969. His most well-known roles are in epic fantasy novels, including that of Azog the Defiler in The Hobbit trilogy, Slade Wilson / Deathstroke in Arrow, Allanon in The Shannara Chronicles, and Crixus in the television series Spartacus.

In 1969, Bennett was born in New Zealand. His father, Ted Bennett, was a singer from New Zealand, and his mother, Jean Bennett, was an Australian bikini model. When Bennett was just a few months old, the family relocated to Australia. The father of Bennett is Māori, specifically Te Arawa and Ngāti Kahungunu. His mother is from Scotland. In Australia, he was raised primarily between Sydney and Newcastle, where he went to Merewether High School.

Bennett played for the first XV while attending Te Aute College in New Zealand in 1986. Bennett was selected for the New South Wales Schoolboys Rugby Union Team once he returned to Australia. Bennett gave up rugby to study dance and drama at university, then took a scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles because he was interested in modern dancing, classical ballet, and piano. Bennett discussed his early vehicle tragedy that killed his mother and sibling and left him in a two-week coma at a Boston audience Q&A.