Sharlto Copley Biography

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, and Agent M. Kruger in the science fiction film Elysium.

Early life

Sharlto Copley was born in Pretoria and educated at St. Andrew's Preparatory School in Grahamstown and Redhill School in Morningside, Johannesburg. Sharlto resides alternately in Cape Town and Los Angeles. 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.

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.

Copley then starred alongside Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the feature film adaptation of The A-Team, which was produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. Copley used a Southern American dialect for his portrayal of A-Team member H. M. Murdock, and employed other dialects, including Scottish, English, Australian, and his native South African, as part of the character's rapid-fire style. Dwight Schultz, who played Murdock in the original TV series, praised Copley's performance and said Copley was the only actor he knew of who was "true to his character."

Copley guest co-hosted WWE Raw on 7 June 2010, along with his A-Team co-stars Bradley Cooper and Quinton Jackson.

Copley was cast in Men in Black 3 as "a fast-talking Yoda type alien" but later left the project.

In 2013, Copley played fictional astronaut James Corrigan in Europa Report, the story of a crew of international astronauts sent on a private mission to Jupiter's fourth moon. Also in 2013, Copley portrayed Agent Kruger, the secondary antagonist in Elysium, a science fiction film written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.

Copley will appear as villain Adrian Pryce in Spike Lee's remake of 2003 South Korean film Oldboy. He will also be seen opposite Angelina Jolie in the 2014 Disney film Maleficent.

Personal life

Copley is in a relationship with actress Tanit Phoenix.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Alive in Joburg	Sniper	Also producer
2009	District 9	Wikus van der Merwe	Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Most Promising Performer Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
2010	The A-Team	Capt. H. M. "Howling Mad" Murdock
2013	Europa Report	James Corrigan
	Elysium	Kruger
	Oldboy	Adrian Pryce	Scheduled for release 27 November 2013
	Open Grave	John	Completed
2014	Maleficent	Stefan	Post-Production; scheduled for release 2 July 2014
	Hardcore		Pre-Production
2015	Chappie		Pre-Production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	WWE Raw	Himself " Guest host	3-Hour Viewer's Choice Raw Promoting The A-Team