Background

McKenzie was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a former member of The Black Seeds. He released an album called Prototype as Video Kid and is a member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. McKenzie attended Clifton Terrace Model School ("model" refers to a standard school for training teachers as opposed to modeling), Wellington College and then Victoria University of Wellington where he met Jemaine Clement who was also studying film and theatre. Together, they were members of So You're a Man and they later formed Flight of the Conchords.

As Flight of the Conchords they have toured internationally and released four CDs: Folk the World Tour in 2002,The Distant Future (which won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album) in 2007, the Grammy nominated Flight of the Conchords in 2008, and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. The Conchords produced a six-part improvisational comedy radio program for the BBC and have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. After a successful appearance in 2005 on HBOs One Night Stand, the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords. Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and its second season premiered on HBO 18 January 2009.

McKenzie has appeared in the first and third films in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His silent role in the first film as Figwit achieved some minor internet fame, which led to Jackson giving him a line in the third film. In April 2011, McKenzie was cast as the elf Lindir for The Hobbit. His father Peter McKenzie played the role of Elendil in Lord of the Rings.

Along with Clement, McKenzie was featured as one of 2008's "100 Sexiest People" in a special edition of the Australian magazine Who.

McKenzie and fellow Conchord Clement guest starred as a pair of camp counselors in "Elementary School Musical", the season premiere of the 22nd season of The Simpsons, which aired on 26 September 2010.

During the summer of 2010, McKenzie flew to Los Angeles to serve as the music supervisor for the The Muppets. He went on to write four of the five original songs from the film's soundtrack including "Man or Muppet" and "Life's a Happy Song" both of which were nominated for Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and Satellite Awards for Best Original Song.

At the 84th Academy Awards in 2012 his song, "Man or Muppet", won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

McKenzie, together with Australian comedian Hamish Blake starred in a New Zealand feature film, Two Little Boys, finished in late 2011 and released in New Zealand on March 2012.

McKenzie wrote the original songs for the 2014 movie Muppets Most Wanted.

Personal life

He is married to New Zealand publicist Hannah Clarke and currently maintains residences in Los Angeles, New York City and Wellington, New Zealand. They have two children; daughter Vita, born in 2009 and son Leo, born in 2011.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Character	Format	Notes
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Lindir (Elf Escort)	Feature film	Uncredited
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Lindir (Elf Escort)	Feature film
2007-2009	Flight of the Conchords	Bret McClegnie	TV series	Also creator, co-writer, and executive producer
2008	The Drinky Crow Show	Rob, the Alien	TV series	2 episodes
2009	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Tim's Tennis Double	TV series	Episode: "Tennis"
2009	Diagnosis Death	Dr. Cruise	Film
2010	The Simpsons	Kurt Hardwick	TV series	Episode: "Elementary School Musical"
2011	The Muppets		Feature Film	Music supervisor Original song, "Man or Muppet", won Academy Award for Best Original Song
2012	Austenland	Martin	Feature Film
2012	Two Little Boys	Nige	Feature Film
2012	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	Lindir	Feature Film
2014	Muppets Most Wanted		Feature Film	Music supervisor

[ Source: Wikipedia ]