- Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson CNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known as the director of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which he, along with Fran Walsh, his long time partner, and Philippa Boyens, adapted from the novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is also known for his 2005 remake of "King Kong". Jackson first gained attention with his "splatstick" horror comedies, …
- Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, KBE (born May 25, 1939) is a veteran English stage and screen actor, the recipient of a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations. McKellen is best known to moviegoers in recent years for his roles as Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy and as Magneto in the "X-Men" trilogy. His work has spanned genres from serious Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction.
- Viggo Mortensen
Young Viggo was an artistic kid, always to be seen with a pencil and paper on hand. This would continue back in New York State when, his parents divorcing in 1969, he and his brothers would move with their mother from Argentina back to Watertown.
- Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler (born Liv Rundgren, on July 1, 1977 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York) is an American actress most famous for her roles of Grace Stamper in "Armageddon" and Arwen in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
- Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning Canadian composer, best known for composing the scores to "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy and films of David Cronenberg. He is also a prolific composer of concert works, and is currently writing his first opera, The Fly, based on the plot (though not the score) of Cronenberg's 1986 film.
- Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28 1981) is an American actor. Acting since the age of nine, Wood is best known for the role of Frodo Baggins in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. Making his film debut with a minor part in "Back to the Future Part II" (1989), Wood landed a succession of subsequent larger roles, and became a critically acclaimed child actor. After his role as Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings", …
- Sean Astin
Sean Astin (born Sean Patrick Duke on February 25, 1971) is an American film actor, director, and Oscar-nominated producer, most famous for his film roles as Mikey in "The Goonies", the title character of "Rudy", Samwise Gamgee in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and Drew Barrymore's steroid-juiced brother in "50 First Dates". He also appeared as Lynn McGill on the fifth season of the television series "24".
- Christopher Lee
Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE (born May 27, 1922) is an English actor known for his professional longevity and his distinctive "basso" delivery. Lee is also best known for his portrayals of villains; he became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in "The Wicker Man," Francisco Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun", …
- John Howe
John Howe is a book illustrator, living in Neuchatel, Switzerland. One year after graduating from high school, he studied in a college in Strasbourg, France, then at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. He is best known for his work based on J. R. R. Tolkien's worlds. Howe and Alan Lee were the lead artists of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. Howe also re-illustrated the maps of "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit", …
- Orlando Bloom
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom (born 13 January 1977) is an English actor. He had his break-through role in the early 2000s as the elf-prince Legolas in "The Lord of the Rings" and blacksmith Will Turner in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy of films, and subsequently established himself as a lead in Hollywood films, including "Troy", "Elizabethtown," and "Kingdom of Heaven".
- Sean Bean
Seán Mark Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean has also acted in a number of television productions as well as performing voice work for computer games and television adverts. As an actor, he adopted the Irish/Scottish spelling "Seán" of his first name. Bean is best known for his role as Boromir, in the The Lord of the Rings films and as James Bond adversary Alec Trevelyan in Goldeneye.
- Hugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is an Australian film and stage actor, as well as a voice actor, best known for his roles as Agent Smith in "The Matrix" and Elrond in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy of films, the title character of "V for Vendetta" and the voice of Megatron in "Transformers".
- Alan Lee
Alan Lee (born August 20, 1947) is an English book illustrator and movie conceptual designer. He has illustrated several fantasy books such as the centenary edition of "The Lord of the Rings", "Faeries" (with Brian Froud), Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock (as well as the cover of an early print of this book), "The Mabinogion", "Castles" and "Merlin Dreams".
- Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop. A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. This included two for "The Fellowship of the Ring" in Make Up and Visual Effects, …
- John Rhys-Davies
Actor John Rhys-Davies joined The Planetary Society's Advisory Council in 2004, but first began working with the Society in 1998 when he appeared on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse in the benefit performance, "An Evening on Mars with Ray Bradbury." Rhys-Davies appeared as the dwarf warrior Gimli in all three films of Peter Jackson 's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
- Philippa Boyens
Philippa Boyens, MNZM, is an Academy Award winning New Zealand screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for Peter Jackson's film series "The Lord of the Rings " with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, for which the trio won an Oscar at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004. Boyens worked with the same collaborators on the screenplay for Jackson's version of "King Kong" (2005).
- Billy Boyd
Billy Boyd (born 28 August, 1968 in Glasgow) is a Scottish actor and musician most widely known for playing Peregrin Took (Pippin), in the film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" and Barrett Bonden in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World".
- Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm, CBE (born 12 September, 1931), is an Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles, including the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the first and third films of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, Father Vito Cornelius in "The Fifth Element" and as the android Ash in "Alien".
- Miranda Otto
Miranda Otto (born December 16, 1967) is an Australian Film Institute-nominated and Logie Award-winning Australian actress. The daughter of actors Barry and Lindsay Otto, she began acting at age nineteen, and has performed in a variety of low-budget and major studio films. Otto's first major film appearance was in 1986's "Emma's War", in which she played a teenager who moves to Australia's bush country during World War II.
- Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor. He may be best known for playing Éomer in the second and third installment of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the role of Kirill, Jason Bourne's opposite number in "The Bourne Supremacy" and the lead role in the video game adaption of "Doom".
- Geoff Murphy
Geoff Murphy (born 13 June 1946) is a New Zealand film director, writer and assistant director. Murphy is best known for early New Zealand films "Goodbye Pork Pie", "Utu", and "The Quiet Earth". Although "Goodbye Pork Pie" has almost iconic status in New Zealand, the later two are generally rated his best.. In the 1990s he moved moved to Hollywood and directed several commercially successful big budget movies, before moving back to New Zealand.
- Craig Parker
Craig Parker is a New Zealand actor, now based in the United Kingdom. He is most famous for his role as Haldir of Lórien in "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. He also does voice-overs for New Zealand documentaries and has been entertaining and meeting fans at various Lord of the Rings-related conventions for several years - for example Ring*Con in Germany, which he has attended every year since its creation in 2002.
- Bruce Hopkins
Bruce Hopkins (born November 25, 1955) is an actor from New Zealand, most famous for his portrayal of Gamling in the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy by Peter Jackson. Born in Invercargill, Hopkins is the son of a crayfisherman and was a crayfisherman himself (as well as PE teacher) before dedicating himself to the performing arts. He has worked as a professional dancer, theater company actor, television and film actor, voice actor, and radio host.
- Lawrence Makoare
Lawrence Makoare is a New Zealand-born Māori actor, probably best-known for his roles in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. In "The Fellowship of the Ring", he played the Uruk-hai leader Lurtz, and in "The Return of the King", he played the Witch-king of Angmar as well as Gothmog, the Orc commander at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. He's very popular among "Xena: Warrior Princess"' fans, too, …
- Sala Baker
Sala Baker (born September 22, 1976) is an actor and stuntman from Wellington, New Zealand. Originally hired as one of several stunt performers for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, he ended up landing the part of Sauron, the trilogy's title role. In addition, he also played several Orcs, a Gondorian, and a Rohirrim. Outside of the trilogy, Baker has performed in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, …
- Robert Shaye
Robert Shaye (Born March 3 1939), often referred to as Bob Shaye, is an American businessman, film producer, director and actor. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he is the Co-founder of the film production and distribution company New Line Cinema with Michael Lynne, where he currently holds the position of Co-chairman and Co-CEO. He is also the brother of actress Lin Shaye.
- James Galway
Sir James Galway (informally known as Jimmy) (born December 8, 1939) is a Northern Ireland-born virtuoso flute player from Belfast, often called "The Man With the Golden Flute". Following in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Rampal, he became one of the first flute players to establish an international career as a soloist. James Galway studied at the Royal College of Music under John Francis and then at the Guildhall School of Music under Geoffrey Gilbert.
- Christian Rivers
Christian Rivers is a Academy Award and BAFTA winning New Zealand visual effects art director and filmmaker. He first met Peter Jackson as a 17 year old and worked with him on storyboarding "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. He also cameos in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" as a soldier of Gondor. He is set to make his directorial debut with a remake of "The Dam Busters".
- Andrew Lesnie
Andrew Lesnie (born 1956) is an Australian cinematographer. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Lesnie attended the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), graduating in 1979.
- Rick Porras
Rick Porras is an American producer, notably co-producing The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
- Jamie Selkirk
Jamie Selkirk is a film editor and producer most prominently known for his work on the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He served as co-producer for all three episodes, and as supervising editor for "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers". His work with Annie Collins on "The Return of the King" earned the film an Oscar for Best Editing in 2004. Selkirk collaborated with Peter Jackson on many of his prior films, …
- Daniel Falconer
Daniel Falcolner is a weapon and armour designer for films and known best for his work with Weta on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- Bret McKenzie
Bret McKenzie (born 29 June, 1976 in New Zealand) is a singer and actor, probably best known as a member of The Black Seeds. He has appeared in the first and third films in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, achieving some internet notoriety as Figwit. He is also one half of the comedy/folk duo Flight of the Conchords, who have produced a radio series for the BBC and released one album.
- Harry Sinclair
Harry Alan Sinclair (born 1959 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a filmmaker, actor, and musician. He was a member of the musical/theatrical duo The Front Lawn with Don McGlashan. This collaboration led to the production of three short films "Walkshort", "The Lounge Bar", and "Linda's Body"; the latter featuring the song "Ngaire", which later became a hit for McGlashan's band The Mutton Birds.
- David Salo
David Salo (born 1969) is a linguist who worked on the languages of J. R. R. Tolkien for the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy, expanding the Elvish languages (particularly Sindarin) by building on vocabulary already known from published works, and defining some languages that previously had a very small published vocabularly. He is a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- John Bach
John Bach (born June 5, 1946) is a Welsh-born actor who has spent most of his career working in New Zealand. His best known role internationally is Madril in the two last movies of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003), but he has substantial television credits in New Zealand, including the title role of Detective Inspector Duggan in the police crime series "Duggan", …
- Roma Ryan
Roma Shane Ryan (born in Belfast,Northern Ireland) is a writer, poetess, and lyricist, currently living in Artane, north Dublin, Ireland, with her husband Nicky. Ryan is the primary lyricist for the singer Enya, who has stated that the importance of Roma's and Nicky's contributions are such that without them, "Enya" would not exist.
- Alison Doody
Alison Doody (born November 11, 1966 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish actress and model. She is a former pupil of Mount Anville Convent in South Dublin. She studied the fine arts in college before veering towards a modeling career. She was very popular as a model in Europe but was snubbed by American agencies, who thought she was too short. She also appeared in several commercials, before an agent noticed her work and suggested her to try acting instead.
- Paul Campion
Paul Campion is an English/ New Zealand film director, film visual effects artist and illustrator. Born in England, Campion trained as a technical illustrator. He began his career as a freelance illustrator and was represented by Folio Artists Agents in London. He created book cover illustrations for authors such as Wilbur Smith and Ben Elton, but is best know for his horror illustration. In 1999 he completed a Masters Degree in Computer Animation at [Bournemouth University], …
- Jane Abbott
Jane Abbott is a horse-riding double from New Zealand. Know best from her work in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.