Rhys Darby

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Rhys Darby : biography

21 March 1974 –

In 2004 he appeared in the Flight of the Conchords BBC radio series as the band’s manager Brian Nesbit alongside comedy stars such as Rob Brydon, Andy Parsons and Jimmy Carr.

Darby plays Murray, the band’s manager, on Flight of the Conchords TV show. He also provided vocals for the track Leggy Blonde on their self-titled first album and also in the second series of the show on the track "Rejected" during the episode "A Good Opportunity" along with tenor Andrew Drost.

Darby played the role of Norman, the boss of Jim Carrey’s character in the film Yes Man. In July 2008 he appeared in a Nike advertisement featuring Roger Federer, he played an impostor posing as Federer’s coach.http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1640149465/bctid1641860585

He appeared on a British children’s television program The Slammer during the first season of the show. He is also doing several advertisements for the mobile phone company 2degrees. He appeared on Soccer AM on the 18th of October 2008 and on Never Mind The Buzzcocks on the 23rd.

The DVD of his live performance Imagine That! has gone platinum in New Zealand.

He regularly returns to New Zealand to appear in comedy shows such as Pulp Sport, 7 Days and The Jaquie Brown Diaries.

Rhys Darby’s hair colour is self-described as Electric Copper in the episode of Flight of the Conchords entitled Murray Takes It to the Next Level. He also refers to this in his stand-up show It’s Rhys Darby Night which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 6–15 August 2009, The Bloomsbury Theatre in London from the 27 July – 1 August and toured around New Zealand with in October and November that year.

Darby played the role of Angus in the Richard Curtis film The Boat That Rocked released in the UK on 1 April 2009. This film was released in some countries in November 2009 under the name Pirate Radio.

In 2009 whilst home in New Zealand he began filming T.V. ads for NZ’s new mobile network 2degrees and appearing in NZ shows Rocked the Nation 2, Jaquie Brown Diaries and Intrepid Journeys. He has also branched out into producing live comedy with his wife and their company Awesomeness International. At the NZ International Comedy Festival they produced shows for local comedians Brendhan Lovegrove, Jeremy Corbett and Paul Ego. He became a climate ambassador for Greenpeace in its Sign On climate campaignhttp://www.signon.org.nz/community/high-profile and published a poem on in support of the campaign.

In 2009 Darby became a part of the New Zealand TV ONE series Intrepid Journeys Season 5, touring the African country of Rwanda.

As of October 2009, Darby is co-hosting a Cryptozoology themed radio show with New Zealand journalist David Farrier on New Zealand radio station 95bFM called the Cryptid Factor.

Darby took the title role in the Roughcut TV pilot "The Amazing Dermot" was aired on the UK’s Channel 4 in 2009.

In January 2010, Rosie announced the birth of their second son, Theo.

In 2010, Darby appeared as a recurring character role as an enthusiastic interviewer in a series of ads by Hewlett-Packard Company.

On 10 August 2010, Entertainment Weekly claimed that Darby was in consideration to have a part in the television series The Office replacing Steve Carell’s character when the actor left at the end of the 2011 season. Darby confirmed on The Kevin and Bean Show that NBC did not negotiate further for the role and he is now involved in a pilot for CBS. In May 2011, he also filmed a pilot for a Channel 4 sitcom in the UK, The Fun Police. This was broadcast on 16 September.

In 2011, Darby and family moved back to the US from NZ for Darby to take a role in the short lived CBS sitcom How to be a Gentleman with David Hornsby, Kevin Dillon, Mary-Lynn Rasjkub. He also fronted a promotional video for NZFact, an organisation owned by the MPAA that lobbied for the NZ "three-strikes" internet downloading law (section 92A) which threatened New Zealanders for downloading copyrighted music. This law change was strongly objected to by many New Zealanders, despite being approved by both the Labour and National political parties. Darby justified his appearance on this DVD saying: "I recorded something saying you should not pirate DVDs. That is it. I haven’t done anything wrong."

Darby’s second DVD "It’s Rhys Darby Night!" was released in NZ on 12 December 2011.

Darby has also written a self-described "autobiographical space novel" entitled "This Way to Spaceship", which was released on 12 April 2012. On May 20, 2012, Darby was awarded the Fred Award by the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for his show of the same name as his book.

His show This Way To Spaceship was released on DVD in late 2012.

In 2013 he was responsible for flying ‘Cornish rappers’ hedluv + passman to New Zealand for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10877501, this was followed by a bizarre appearance on Seven Sharp where he introduced ‘his rappers’http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10877501 to the New Zealand public.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kepmX9VCiI4#!.