Bret McKenzie | |
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McKenzie at the Muppets Most Wanted premiere on 11 March 2014
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Background information | |
Birth name | Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie |
Also known as | Rhymenoceros |
Born | 29 June 1976 |
Origin | Wellington, New Zealand |
Genres | Comedy, Folk, Acoustic |
Occupation(s) | Musician/Comedian/Actor |
Instruments | Guitar, keyboards, drums, vocals, ukulele |
Years active | 1994–present |
Labels | Sub Pop |
Associated acts | Jemaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, The Black Seeds, So You're a Man, Video Kid, The Muppets |
Notable instruments | |
Casio DG20 electric guitar (1983) |
Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie, ONZM (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand comedian, actor, musician and producer, best known for being one half of the Grammy Award-winning musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an oft-lauded American television series, which aired for two seasons on HBO. McKenzie served as music supervisor for two Muppet films, The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014), the former of which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "Man or Muppet". His latest work has seen him write the lyrics to the 2016 Sainsburys Christmas advert featuring James Corden on vocals.
As an actor, he is known for portraying Lindir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, respectively: in the first he remained unnamed with fans naming him Figwit, a character originally cast as an extra who gained attention thanks to the trilogy's fan community, and in The Hobbit is credited as Lindir, a small character who originally appears in the book of The Fellowship of the Ring.