Sharlto Copley

Sharlto Copley (born 27 November 1973) is a South African producer, actor, and director who has produced and co-directed short films which have appeared at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as commercials and music videos. He is perhaps best known for playing the roles of Wikus van der Merwe in the Oscar-nominated science fiction film District 9, Howling Mad Murdock in the 2010 adaptation of The A-Team, Agent C.M.Kruger in the science fiction film Elysium and King Stefan in the dark fantasy adventure film Maleficent. Early life Sharlto Copley was born in Pretoria and educated at St. Andrew's Preparatory School in Grahamstown and Redhill School in Morningside, Johannesburg. His father is Dr. Bruce Copley, a former university professor, currently a holistic educator/entertainer and multi-instrumentalist. His mother, Linda Stocks-Copley, is a Christian Science Healer living in Cape Town. His brother, Donovan, is the lead-singer of the successful Cape Town band Hotwater, whose music has been featured on BBC World and whose song 'Bushfire' was used in advertisements by the Italian shoe manufacturer Primigi. His sister, Marisa, is a dancer and fashion & costume designer. Career A year after leaving high school, Copley met director Neill Blomkamp. Copley was 22 and Blomkamp was 16, and Copley provided Blomkamp with use of computers at his production company to assist the company with pitches for various projects and allow Blomkamp to further pursue his passion and talent for 3D animation and design. Copley starred in Peter Jackson's and Neill Blomkamp's District 9, where he played the lead role of Wikus van der Merwe, an Afrikaner bureaucrat assigned to relocate a race of extraterrestrial creatures unexpectedly stranded on Earth. In the film, the aliens, popularly and derogatorily referred to as "prawns", must be moved from District 9, a military-guarded slum in Johannesburg, South Africa, to an internment camp outside the city. Copley improvised all of his dialogue in the film. In 2009 Copley won the Favorite Hero award at the IGN Summer Movie awards and Best Performance of 2009 for his role in District 9. In 2010 Copley produced, wrote and directed an insert for the South African Music Awards called "Wikus and Charlize", featuring fellow South African star Charlize Theron. The clip features Copley as Wikus attempting to track down Charlize in Hollywood to help him present the Award for Best Afrikaans Pop album. Personal life Copley has been in a relationship with actress and fashion model Tanit Phoenix since January 2012. Sharlto resides alternately in Cape Town and Los Angeles.