Person Biography:
Manu Bennett is a New Zealand-born Australian actor of Maori, Scottish, English, French, and Finish ancestry. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he is the great-grandson of Frederick Augustus Bennett, the first Maori Bishop of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. His grandfather, Manuhuia Bennett, was also an ordained Anglican Bishop.
Bennett's parents, Charles Edward Tiwha (Ted) Bennett and Jean Clark, were both from Australia. His father was a popular singer who recorded a No.1 hit in the early 1960s, while his mother was a bikini model who paraded the first two-piece bikini for designer Paula Stafford.
Bennett has two older siblings, Stephen and Rachel. The family moved to Australia in 1970. His mother, Jean, died in a car accident in 1985, and his brother Stephen died two weeks later in a separate car accident.
Bennett trained as a dancer and musician during his schooling and played Rugby Union for Te Aute College, a Maori Boy school with a strong rugby union history. He was selected for the First XV and later for the NSW Schoolboys Rugby Union Team and even trialed for the Australian National Team. However, he had to forgo the national trial due to a prior commitment to a ballet production of Swan Lake.
In the 1990s, Bennett had to choose between a ballet scholarship in New York and an acting scholarship at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. He decided to pursue his acting career and attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles.
Bennett has appeared in various TV dramas and feature films, including the multiple award-winning "Lantana" opposite Anthony La Paglia, "The Marine" opposite Jon Cena, and "The Condemned" starring opposite "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones. He has also had recurring roles in successful New Zealand productions such as "Shortland Street," "Street Legal," "Mataku," "Creature Of Quest," "Going Straight," and "Xena: Warrior Princess."
