Cliff Curtis' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Missing Dax Miller Trauma Reuben Rabb… Gang Related Javier Acosta

Main Movie Roles 2010 - The Last Airbender 2009 - Crossing Over 2009 - Push 2008 - 10,000 BC 2007 - Sunshine 2007 - Fracture 2007 - Live Free or Die Hard 2006 - The Fountain 2005 - River Queen 2003 - Runaway Jury 2002 - Whale Rider 2002 - Collateral Damage 2001 - Training Day 2001 - The Majestic 2001 - Blow 1999 - The Insider 1999 - Bringing Out The Dead 1999 - Three Kings 1999 - Virus 1998 - Six Days Seven Nights 1998 - Deep Rising 1994 - Rapa Nui 1993 - The Piano

BIOGRAPHY:

Cliff Curtis was born in Rotorua, Aotearoa, New Zealand, on July 27, 1968.

Of New Zealand Maori descent (Ngati Hauiti, Te Arawa) he spent time when young learning the traditional Maori fighting styles of mau rakau. He enrolled at the New Zealand Drama School, and then the Teatro Dmitri Scoula in Switzerland.

After returning to Aotearoa New Zealand from Europe, he was cast in The Piano (1993). Subsequent roles in New Zealand include the camp melodrama Desperate Remedies (1993), the gruelling urban drama Once Were Warriors (1994), in which he plays a child rapist, and the lighthearted comedy Jubilee (2000).

In Hollywood, Cliff Curtis has played a range of different roles and ethnicities in films. He plays a Colombian in Blow (2001), an Arab in Three Kings (1999) and The Insider (1999), a Latino in Training Day (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003), and a drug dealer of ambiguous ethnicity in Bringing Out the Dead (1999). However, he is probably best known for his role as Paikea's father Porourangi, in Whale Rider (2002).


TRIVIA:

• Though he's Maori, he's only played a Maori in a couple of movies. He has been cast as nearly any other dark-skinned nationality having played, among others, Mexican-Americans, Colombians, Arabs and Chechens.
• Is in two separate films entitled "Fracture," playing a detective in both.
• While filming _Whale Rider (2002)_ (qv) he would approach 'Rawiri Paratene' (qv) in the mornings and annoy him in order to keep them both in character.
• Almost missed his flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Los Angeles en route to Mexico to film _Blow (2001)_ (qv).
• Filmed his part as Pablo Escobar in Blow in just three days.
• Is one of nine children.