Bret McKenzie

Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, 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. Active since 1998, the duo released their most recent comedy special, '' Live in London'', in 2018.

Primarily a musician, McKenzie has worked as a songwriter and music supervisor for film and television since the 2010s. He 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". In the 2000s, McKenzie was part of reggae fusion band The Black Seeds and Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, and, in the 2010s, he began performing solo material. His debut album ''Songs Without Jokes'' was released in August 2022.

As an actor, he portrayed elves in Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogies: 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. He later appears in ''The Hobbit'' as Lindir, a minor character who originally appears in the book of ''The Fellowship of the Ring''.

Early life

McKenzie was born in Wellington to Peter McKenzie, a part-time actor, and Deirdre Tarrant, a contemporary dance teacher. He was raised in Kelburn with his brothers Justin and Jonny. McKenzie attended Clifton Terrace Model School between 1982 and 1987 ("model" refers to a standard school for training teachers as opposed to modelling). His classmates at the school included Antonia Prebble and Age Pryor.

McKenzie then went on to Wellington College where he was a prefect and won the Wellington regional heats of the Smokefree Rockquest with his jazz and funk band, The Blue Samanthas.

Career

Flight of the Conchords

While studying at Victoria University of Wellington, McKenzie met Jemaine Clement, a fellow student who was also studying film and theatre. They didn't complete their degrees but ended up living together and first were members of So You're a Man, and then later forming Flight of the Conchords.

As Flight of the Conchords they have toured internationally and released four CDs: '' Folk the World Tour'' in 2002,'' The Distant Future'' (which won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album) in 2007, the 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
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