Sharlto Copley

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Date of Birth : Nov 27th 1973

South African producer, actor, and director who is best known for playing Wikus van de Merwe in the film District 9. In 2005, Copley and Simon Hansen produced Neill Blomkamp’s short film, Alive in Joburg on which the feature film, District 9 is based. Copley co-wrote and co-directed two of South Africa’s most popular viral short films With Simon Hansen—2001: A Space Oddity, a comedy featuring a space shuttle making a crash landing in Cape Town and Hellweek, a spoof on digital artist training in Africa. Both films were screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Copley and Hansen also wrote, produced and directed the supernatural-thriller feature film Spoon, starring Darren Boyd and Rutger Hauer. The filming of Spoon utilised a prototype digital camera. In 2003/2004 Sharlto and Simon Hansen directed the music video for a song called “Dream”, from international music producers/artists “Jago”.

As an actor, he had a small role in Alive In Joburg. He stars in Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, in which he plays the part of main character Wikus van de Merwe. He improvised all of his dialogue in the film during the eviction scenes. Copley is now signed on to star alongside Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the forthcoming theatrical remake of The A-Team. He will be playing H. M. Murdock, originally played by Dwight Schultz in the show.