Early life

Jemaine Clement was born in Masterton, New Zealand on 10 January 1974 and was raised by his Māori mother, in the Wairarapa region. He attended Makoura College in Masterton. After graduation, he moved to New Zealand's capital Wellington, where he studied drama and film at Victoria University of Wellington. There he met Taika Waititi (a.k.a. Taika Cohen) with whom he went on to form So You're a Man and The Humourbeasts. In 2004, the Humourbeasts toured New Zealand in a stage show titled The Untold Tales of Maui, a rework of the traditional Maori legends of Māui. The duo received New Zealand's highest comedy honour, the Billy T Award.

Career

Music

Clement and Bret McKenzie formed Flight of the Conchords while at Victoria University. They have toured internationally and released four CDs: Folk the World Tour in 2002, The Distant Future EP in 2007 (winner of 2008 Grammy for Best Comedy Album), Flight of the Conchords in 2008 and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. In 2005 the Conchords produced Flight of the Conchords a six-part comedy radio programme on BBC Radio 2. They appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show. After appearing in 2005 on HBO's One Night Stand, the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords, which was based on their earlier BBC radio series of the same name. Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and was renewed for a second season, which aired on HBO in the US from January to March 2009. In December 2009, the Conchords announced the show would not have a third season.

Film and television

Clement has appeared in several feature films. His debut was in the kung fu comedy Tongan Ninja, directed by New Zealander Jason Stutter. He has worked with Stutter on two more movies to date: the low budget ghost comedy Diagnosis Death and the drama Predicament, based on the book by late New Zealand novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Clement also has a role in American comedy Gentlemen Broncos, directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess. This role landed him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. Though Gentlemen Broncos was almost universally panned by critics, some singled out Clement's performance for praise. In 2010, he voiced Jerry in Despicable Me and appeared in the film Dinner for Schmucks. In 2011, he voiced Nigel in Rio, and in 2012 he appeared as the primary antagonist Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3. In 2012, Jemaine co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in a vampire mockumentary titled What We Do in the Shadows with Taika Waititi. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2014. He also reprised his role as Nigel in Rio 2.

Clement has starred in television commercials internationally and provided voiceovers for many others in New Zealand. On 5 February 2006, Outback Steakhouse began running a series of television commercials starring Clement during Super Bowl XL in which Clement pretends to be Australian and feigns an Australian accent. One of the long-running gags of Flight of the Conchords is the traditional rivalry between New Zealand and Australia and the differences between their accents. The campaign ended in July 2006.

Clement has been involved in award winning radio work. In 1999, Clement was a Radio Awards Winner as writer for Trashed, for Channel Z, Wellington. In 2000, he was given a Special Radio Awards Commendation for The Sunglass Store.

Besides his television work on Flight of the Conchords, Clement was a writer and cast member of the television shows Skitz and Tellylaughs in New Zealand. Clement, with fellow Conchord member Bret McKenzie, 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.

Clement was featured as one of 2008's "100 Sexiest People" in a special edition of the Australian magazine Who. Fellow Conchord member McKenzie appeared on the same list.

In 2015, Clement voiced a horse in two DirecTV commercials. In the same year, he voiced a "mind-reading fart" on an episode of the Adult Swim animated series Rick And Morty, where he performed the song "Goodbye Moonmen". Clement also starred in the independent film, People Places Things, which received positive reviews.

Personal life

In August 2008, Clement married his longtime girlfriend, theatre actress and playwright Miranda Manasiadis. Clement's first child, a son named Sophocles Iraia Clement, was born in October 2008, in New York City.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	Blood Suckers	Vampire
1996	The Enid Blyton Adventure Series	MIS Guard	Episode: Circus of Adventures
1999	Fizz	Chased Man	Short Film
2002	The Tribe	Virtual Reality Cowboy No. 2	Episode: #4.24
	Tongan Ninja	Action Fighter (Marvin)	Also Writer
2004	Futile Attraction	Editor
2007	Eagle vs Shark	Jared
2007-2009	Flight of the Conchords	Jemaine Clemaine	TV Series: 22 Episodes Also Writer/Executive Producer Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (2009)
2008	The Drinky Crow Show	Alien	TV series: 2 episodes Voice Only
2009	Gentlemen Broncos	Ronald Chevalier	Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male (2009)
	Diagnosis: Death	Garfield Olyphant
	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Eric's tennis double	Episode: "Tennis"
2010	Despicable Me	Jerry the Minion	Voice only
	Predicament	Spook
	Dinner for Schmucks	Kieran Vollard
	Radiradirah		TV series: 2 episodes Voice only
	The Simpsons	Ethan Ballantyne	Voice only Episode: "Elementary School Musical"
2011	Rio	Nigel	Voice only Nominated - Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production (2011)
2012	Men in Black 3	Boris the Animal	Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Villain
	Napoleon Dynamite	Professor Koontz	Voice only Episode: "Scantronica Love"
2013	Out There	Tenebres (Destiny's little brother) Babel (Destiny's father)	Voice only Episode: "Enter Destiny"
	#7DaysLater	Harrison Engstrom	Voice only Episode: "Portrait"
2014	What We Do in the Shadows	Vladislav	Also writer/director
	Muppets Most Wanted	Prison King
	Rio 2	Nigel	Voice only
	TripTank	Various	TV series: 4 episodes Voice only
2015	Don Verdean	Boaz
	People Places Things	Will
	Rick and Morty	Fart	TV series Voice only Episode: "Mortynight Run"
	Divorce		TV series Episode: "Pilot"
2016	The BFG	The Fleshlumpeater
	Regular Show	Ziggy	TV series Voice only Episode: "California King"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]