Manu Bennett

Manu Bennett
Bennett at Florida SuperCon 2014
Born	Jonathan Manu Bennett (1969-10-10) 10 October 1969 (age 47) Rotorua, New Zealand
Other names	Jon Bennett
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1993–present
Children	3

Jonathan Manu Bennett (born 10 October 1969), is a New Zealand actor. He is known for his portrayal as the Gallic gladiator Crixus in the Starz television series Spartacus. He has also appeared as the orc commander Azog the Defiler in Peter Jackson's three-part film adaptation based on The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, as supervillain Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in The CW TV series Arrow. Since January 2016, he plays the role of Allanon in the MTV series The Shannara Chronicles, based on the Shannara novel series by Terry Brooks.

Bennett was born in New Zealand in 1969. His mother Jean Bennett was an Australian bikini model and father Ted Bennett a New Zealand singer. The family moved to Australia when Bennett was a few months old. Bennett's father is of Māori (specifically Te Arawa and Ngāti Kahungunu) and Irish descent. His mother is of Scottish descent. He was raised mostly between Sydney and Newcastle in Australia, where he attended Merewether High School. In 1986, Bennett returned to New Zealand to attend Te Aute College, where he played for the 1st XV. Upon returning to Australia, Bennett was chosen in the New South Wales Schoolboys Rugby Union Team. Interested in modern dancing, classical ballet, and piano, Bennett quit rugby to attend university to study dance and drama, then traveled to Los Angeles on a scholarship to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. In an audience Q&A in Boston, Bennett talked about the car accident he experienced at a young age that killed his mother and brother and put him in a two-week coma. At that time, his girlfriend was a ballet dancer which got him into acting; he found it to be the medium in which to direct his emotions saying, "Acting was my route to survival."