Daniel Gillies

Daniel Gillies

Active - 2001 - 2021  |   Born - Mar 14, 1976 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada  |   Genres - Drama, Fantasy, Horror

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Biography by AllMovie

After coming of age in New Zealand and working very briefly in the Australian and Canadian film industries, Kiwi actor-turned-Hollywood hunk Daniel Gillies reportedly moved to Los Angeles with only 100 dollars in his pocket and began landing coveted A-list roles in seemingly no time at all; these included John Jameson -- Mary Jane's (Kirsten Dunst) love interest and Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) romantic rival -- in Spider-Man 2 (2004); and British vagabond Johnny Wickham in Gurinder Chadha's musical romance adaptation of Jane Austen, Bride & Prejudice (2004). Gillies also played Ethan Biggs in Into the West (2005), Steven Spielberg's miniseries about Manifest Destiny. In a much-publicized event, Gillies married Into the West co-star Rachael Leigh Cook that same year. In 2007, Gillies tackled dual roles within the horror genre. In Norio Tsuruta's Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise, Gillies played Jack, an American attorney stationed in Tokyo who embarks on a quick trip to a watery grave. In Roland Joffé's slasher movie Captivity, Gillies played a young man who blacks out and awakens alongside his girlfriend (Elisha Cuthbert), trapped in the basement of a torture-happy psychopath. In 2010, he landed the recurring role of Elijah Mikaelson on the CW series The Vampire Diaries, and later reprised the role as one of the stars of the spin-off The Originals in 2013. When The Originals was picked up, he was already a series regular on the Canadian series Saving Hope, and he worked on both shows until Saving Hope end its run in 2015.

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Factsheet

  • Was born in Canada but moved to New Zealand at the age of 4.
  • Gained regional fame in New Zealand starring in the TV drama Street Legal.
  • Stage credits include Julius Caesar and The Judas Kiss. Won a theater award in 1999 for his performance in the play The God Boy.
  • Wrote, directed and starred in the 2012 film Broken Kingdom.