Early life

Wenham was born in Marrickville, Sydney, the son of Kath and Bill Wenham. He has five older sisters; Helen, Anne, Carmel, Kathryn, and Maree; and one older brother, Peter. He was raised in the Roman Catholic faith and attended Christian Brothers' High School, Lewisham.

Career

Wenham started his career as an actor after graduating from Theatre Nepean at the University of Western Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (Performing Arts) in 1987. Wenham's television credits include several telemovies, such as his AFI award winning role in the 1996 telemovie Simone de Beauvoir's Babies; and his role as the outwardly laid back but deeply enigmatic diver Dan Della Bosca in the 1998 and 1999 seasons of the highly successful ABC television series SeaChange. His role as "Diver Dan" has made the actor something of a sex symbol, although he dislikes thinking of himself as such, and he has been voted Australia's "sexiest man alive". A portrait of Wenham by artist Adam Cullen won the Archibald Prize in 2000. Wenham is signed to Storm Model Management in London.

Australian films Wenham has starred in include the critically acclaimed The Boys (1998) based on the play of the same name premiered at Griffin Theatre Company and in turn based on the murder of Anita Cobby; Molokai (1999), based on the life of Father Damien; The Bank (2001); Gettin' Square (2003); Stiff (2004); The Brush Off (2004) and Three Dollars (2005). Wenham has periodically appeared in Hollywood films; he is known for playing Faramir, son of Denethor II, in New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

He was also seen in Van Helsing playing Hugh Jackman's sidekick, Friar Carl. His character, Dilios, narrated and appeared in the movie 300. Minor roles of Wenham's in overseas films include in The Crocodile Hunter as a park ranger, and briefly in Moulin Rouge! as Audrey. Wenham stars in the music video for Alex Lloyd's single "Brand New Day". In 2008's Australia, he reunited with Hugh Jackman playing antagonist Neil Fletcher who seeks to acquire the ranch Jackman's character is employed with.

In both Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and 300, Wenham's character is the sole survivor returned from an ill-fated battle (the Battle at Osgiliath and the Battle of Thermopylae, respectively). He reprises his role of Dilios in the videogame 300: March to Glory for Sony PlayStation Portable, which contains a substantial amount of new dialogue.

In 2009 he again took to the stage, this time as the lead actor, Jerry Springer, in the British musical Jerry Springer: The Opera. During its 6-day run at the Sydney Opera House he played in sold-out performances alongside ARIA award winning singer Kate Miller-Heidke.

In 2010, Wenham starred as the disgraced Melbourne lawyer Andrew Fraser in the Australian TV series Killing Time. This ten-part series shows Fraser's fall from grace as he defends many Melbourne criminals during the 1980s and 1990s. It was shown on TV1 in late 2011.

Wenham plays New Zealand detective Al Parker alongside Elisabeth Moss in the 2013 BBC series Top of the Lake.

In 2013, Wenham returned to the stage to play the lead role of John Proctor, in the Melbourne Theatre Company's mid-year production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

In 2014, Wenham started as Patrick, in Paper Planes to released in 15 January 2015. In 2015, Wenham voiced the role Jacko a frilled-neck lizard, in Blinky Bill the Movie.

Personal life

He has two daughters, Eliza Jane and Millie, with his longtime girlfriend, Kate Agnew.

Wenham read a poem by Rupert McCall at the memorial service for Steve Irwin. The poem was entitled "The Crocodiles are Crying".

Wenham is a Sydney Swans supporter.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Come In Spinner	Australian soldier	Television film
1992	Greenkeeping	Trevor
1992	Seeing Red	Frank
1994	Gino	Trevor
1994	Tran the Man	Raymond "Tran" Moss	Short film
1994	No Escape	Hotel Guard No. 2
1994	Escape from Jupiter	Dr. Chrobak
1995	Roses Are Red	Brian
1996	Cosi	Doug
1996	Idiot Box	Bank Teller
1998	The Boys	Brett Sprague
1998	Dark City	Schreber's Assistant
1998	A Little Bit of Soul	Dr. Richard Shorkinghorn
1999	Molokai: The Story of Father Damien	Father Damien
2000	Better Than Sex	Josh
2001	Russian Doll	Ethan
2001	Moulin Rouge!	Audrey
2001	The Bank	Jim Doyle
2001	Dust	Luke
2002	The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course	Sam Flynn
2002	Pure	Lenny
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Faramir
2003	Gettin' Square	Johnny Spitieri
2003	Basilisk Stare	Dave
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Faramir
2004	The Brush-Off	Murray Whelan
2004	Van Helsing	Carl
2005	Three Dollars	Eddie Harnovey
2005	The Proposition	Eden Fletcher
2006	Answered by Fire	Mark Waldman	Television film
2007	300	Dilios
2008	Married Life	John O'Brien
2008	The Children of Huang Shi	Barnes
2008	Australia	Neil Fletcher
2009	Public Enemies	Harry Pierpont
2009	Pope Joan	Gerold
2010	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Digger (voice)
2010	Oranges and Sunshine	Len
2012	Dripping in Chocolate	Bennett O'Mara
2014	300: Rise of an Empire	Dilios
2015	Paper Planes	Patrick
2015	Blinky Bill the Movie	Jacko (voice)
2015	Force of Destiny	Robert	Filming
2016	Lion		Post-production
2017	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	Scarfield	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	A Country Practice	Ambulanceman 1	Episode: "Mozart Rules - Part 1"
1987	Sons and Daughters	Debt Collector	Episode: "#1.954"
1988	A Country Practice	Scott Galbraith	2 episodes
1991	Police Rescue	Ferret	Episode: "The Cosmic Lightbeam"
1992	A Country Practice	David Cornish	2 episodes
1994	Blue Heelers	William Cassidy	Episode: "The Folly of Youth"
1996	Blue Heelers	Robbie Doyle	Episode: "Happy Families"
1997	Return to Jupiter	Dr. Ghrobak	2 episodes
1998-1999	SeaChange	Dan Della Bosca	15 episodes
2011	Killing Time	Andrew Fraser	10 episodes
2013	Top of the Lake	Al Parker	7 episodes
2013	Better Man	Julian McMahon	4 episodes
2014	The Code	Ian Bradley	6 episodes
2015	Banished	Captain Arthur Phillip, 1st Governor of New South Wales
2015	Who Do You Think You Are?	Himself	Series 7, Episode 4
2016	Marvel's Iron Fist	Harold Meachum

Awards and nominations

• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Lead Actor in Television Drama for Simone de Beauvoir's Babies (1997) - winner
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Lead Actor in Television Drama for Answered by Fire (2006) - winner

[ Source: Wikipedia ]