Kodi Smit-McPhee

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Kodi Smit-McPhee (born 13 June 1996) is an Australian actor known for his roles as The Boy in The Road, Owen in Let Me In, Norman Babcock in ParaNorman, and Alexander in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Life and career

Smit-McPhee was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sonja and Andy McPhee, an actor and former professional wrestler. His sister is actress Sianoa Smit-McPhee. He now lives in Los Angeles.

Kodi's first feature film role was in Romulus, My Father (dir. Richard Roxburgh) with Eric Bana and Franka Potente, which garnered him the 2007 AFI Award for Best Young Actor as well as a Best Actor nomination. His appearance in 2009's The Road (dir. John Hillcoat) opposite Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron and Robert Duvall, saw him receive a Critics' Choice Award nomination for Best Young Actor and a 2010 Australian Film Institute (AFI) nomination for Best International Actor. The following year, he starred in Let Me In (dir. Matt Reeves) opposite ChloÃ« Grace Moretz and Richard Jenkins, for which he received a 2010 Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Young Actor for his performance in the film; he was also nominated for the Australian film Matching Jack (dir. Nadia Tass) the same year.

In 2012, Kodi filmed The Congress (dir. Ari Folman) opposite Robin Wright, Paul Giamatti and Harvey Keitel. The film premiered at the 2013 Directors' Fortnight at The Cannes Film Festival.

Kodi then starred in Laika/Focus Features' ParaNorman, in which he lent his voice as the lead role of Norman. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature for the 2013 Academy Awards, and also received a 2013 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Animated Film. The cast included Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, and Jeff Garlin. Later the same year, Kodi had a role in Dead Europe (dir. by Tony Krawitz) opposite Ewen Leslie and Marton Csokas, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

His next role came in The Wilderness of James (dir: Michael J. Johnson) as the title role of James, opposite Isabel Furman, Virginia Madsen, and Evan Ross. He also starred in A Birder's Guide to Everything (dir: Rob Meyer), opposite Ben Kingsley which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, and played Benvolio in a film adaption of Romeo and Juliet (dir. Carlo Carlei) opposite Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Ed Westwick, and Paul Giamatti. Smit-McPhee co-starred in the 20th Century Fox film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), opposite Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, and Keri Russell. The project reunited him with director Matt Reeves, with whom he previously worked with on the film Let Me In.

In 2013, Kodi filmed the action science fiction film Young Ones (dir: Jake Paltrow), starring alongside Nicholas Hoult, Elle Fanning and Michael Shannon. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. Soon after, he appeared in Slow West (dir. John MacLean) opposite Michael Fassbender, which was released in 2014.

In March 2014, Smit-McPhee was cast in the Nine Network's eight-part drama series Gallipoli to be telecast in 2015, the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. He has been cast as 17-year-old Thomas "Tolly" Johnson, who ages himself up so that he can enlist with his brother Bevan and ends up fighting at Gallipoli in the campaign that helped create the Anzac legend. The series is produced by Endemol Australia and will be shot over a three month period starting in March 2014.