Bret McKenzie

McKenzie is a former member of The Black Seeds. He has released an album called Prototype as Video Kidand is a member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.McKenzie attended Clifton Terrace Model School (model in the sense of a standard school for training teachers; not a school for models), Wellington College and then Victoria University of Wellingtonwhere he met Jemaine Clement who was also studying film and theatre. Together they were members of So You’re a Man. They later formed Flight of the Conchords.

As The Conchords they have toured internationally and released four CDs: Folk the World Tour in 2002, Grammy Award-winningThe Distant Future in 2007, Grammy nominated Flight of the Conchords in 2008, and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. The Conchords produced a six-part improvisational comedy radio program for the BBC and have appeared on Late Night with Conan O’BrienThe Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. After a successful appearance in2005 on HBOs One Night Stand , the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords. Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and its second season premiered on HBO January 18, 2009.

McKenzie has appeared in the first and third films in Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy. His silent role in the first film achieved some minor internet fame as Figwit. His father Peter McKenzie played the role of Elendil in Lord of the Rings.

Along with Jemaine, McKenzie was featured as one of 2008’s “100 Sexiest People” in a special edition of the Australian magazine Who.

McKenzie and fellow Conchord Clement guest starred as a pair of camp counselors in “Elementary School Musical“, the season premiere of the 22nd season of The Simpsons, which aired on September 26, 2010.

During the summer of 2010, McKenzie flew to Los Angeles to serve as the music supervisor for the The Muppets.  He went on to write four of the five original songs from the film’s soundtrack including “Man or Muppet” and “Life’s a Happy Song” both of which were nominated for Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and Satellite Awards for Best Original Song.

At the 84th Academy Awards in 2012 his song, “Man or Muppet“, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

McKenzie, together with Australian comedian Hamish Blake starred in a New Zealand feature film, Two Little Boys, finished in late 2011 and released in New Zealand on March 2012.

He is married to New Zealand publicist Hannah Clarke and currently lives in Los Angeles, New York and Wellington, New Zealand. They have a daughter, Vita, who was born in 2009.

(Bio from Wikipedia)

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