Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born July 27, 1968) is a New Zealand Māori (Te Arawa and Ngāti Hauiti) actor and producer.
One of Hollywood’s go-to-guys for ethnic roles, he's best known for Once Were Warriors, Three Kings, and Training Day.
He is married and has three children.
Film Roles
- The Piano as Mana
- Desperate Remedies as Fraser
- Rapa-Nui (1994) as Short Ears
- Once Were Warriors as Bully
- Hercules In The Underworld as Nessus (TV Movie)
- Kahu And Maia as Kahu
- Chicken as Zeke
- Deep Rising as Mamooli
- Six Days, Seven Nights as Kip
- Virus as Hiko
- Three Kings as Amir Abdulah
- Bringing Out the Dead as Cy Coates
- The Insider as Sheikh Fadlallah
- Jubilee 2000 as Billy Williams
- Blow as Escobar
- Training Day as Smiley
- The Majestic as The Evil But Handsome Prince Khalid
- Collateral Damage as Claudio Perrini
- Point of Origin as Mike Camello
- Whale Rider as Porourangi
- Runaway Jury as Frank Herrrera
- Fracture 2004 as Det. Franklin
- Spooked as Mort Whitman
- River Queen as Wiremu
- The Fountain as Captain Ariel
- Sunshine as Searle
- Fracture (2007) as Det. Flores
- Live Free or Die Hard as FBI Deputy Director Miguel Bowman
- 10,000 BC as Tic'Tic
- Push 2009 as Hook Waters
- Crossing Over as Hamid Baraheri
- The Last Airbender as Fire Lord Ozai
- Colombiana as Emilio Restrepo
- A Thousand Words as Dr. Sinja
- The Dark Horse 2014 as Genesis (also producer)
- Last Knights as Lt. Cortez
- Risen as Yeshua
- The Meg as Mac
- Hobbs & Shaw as Jonah
- Doctor Sleep as Billy Freeman
- Reminiscence as Cyrus Booth
- Avatar: The Way of Water as Tonovari
- Meg 2: The Trench as James "Mac" Mackreides
Television Roles
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as Nemis (1 episode)
- Mysterious Island as "Peter"/Peter (2 episodes)
- City Life as Daniel Freeman (4 episodes)
- Trauma as Reuben 'Rabbit' Palchuk
- Body of Proof as Agent Derek Ames (2 episodes)
- Missing (2012) as Dax Miller
- Gang Related as Javier Acosta
- Fear the Walking Dead as Travis Manawa (24 episodes)
Producer
Tropes in his work include:
- Fake American: He's played lots of Americans in his career.
- Plays Great Ethnics: He's played a huge variety of ethnicities, from Latin American to Indian, but few Māori like himself except for a couple times. Curtis has embraced this, saying it gave him many opportunities in his acting.