In today’s spotlight, we feature two actors with roles in Amazon’s Middle-earth series, both versed in theater and film – Alex Tarrant and Fabian McCallum.
Alex Tarrant (@aggytarrant on Instagram) is a Māori-Niuean-Samoan actor and cinematographer from Auckland. He has an extensive filmography, but his career really took off when he landed a roll as the co-star in the World War I TV mini-series When We Go To War, in which he plays a Māori pacifist forced to go to Gallipoli, the military campaign that is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness.
He then stayed busy playing bad boy roles in 800 Words, Tatau, and Filthy Rich, TV series spanning 2015-2017. His CV also includes a role as fan-favorite Doctor Lincoln Fielderin in Shortland Street, and stints in the Australian show SeaChange. Besides his work on LotR on Prime, recently Tarrant wrapped his role in Night Raiders, a Canadian film set to release in 2021.
Tarrant is passionate about theater, and he performed in the acclaimed production Masi at the New Zealand International Arts Festival and toured around the world with Red Leap Theatre’s The Arrival.
Tarrant believes that his acting experience has taught him, “To stand up for myself, to stay strong in what I believe in, and to question things that don’t sit right with me.” (NZ Onscreen) These beliefs could be a good fit for a role in LotR on Prime as one of the Lords of Andúnië or one of the Faithful, those Númenóreans also known as “Elf-friends” who remained loyal to the will of the Valar and turned aside from the later policies of the corrupt Kings of Númenor.
Fabian McCallum was born in London but grew up in Sydney, Australia, and has since moved between the two, working extensively in theater. He is known for his roles in the TV series In Your Dreams and made his international screen debut alongside Rob Lowe, Jenna Fischer, and Megan Mullally in the NBC series, You, Me and the Apocalypse, a dramedy about an eclectic group of misfits coping with the impending end of the world due to an 8-mile wide comet heading for earth.
He graduated from the National Institute for Dramatic Arts, where he had the lead in Shakespeare’s Richard III and also performed in Glengarry Glen Ross and The Way of the World. He was in the cast of Selfie, an interpretation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, a National Youth Theatre play.
With his fair, ethereal personage, one could persuasively argue that he might be cast as one of the Elves, if LotR on Prime holds with the image of the Eldar that the movies portrayed.
Editor Note: Join TheOneRing.net as we focus on the recent cast member announcements for Amazon TV’s The Lord of the Rings inspired TV series. Throughout the month, and as part of our Tolkien Advent Calendar celebration, we will be taking a deep-dive into their previous work, relating that to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Today’s calendar is below!
