Rhys Darby

Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is an actor, comedian, and New Zealander. He is known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects, for example machinery and animals. He was nominated for the Billy T Award in 2001 and 2002; he won the 2012 Fred (Dagg) Award for best NZ show at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

Darby is best known for playing Murray Hewitt, the band manager of Flight of the Conchords in the television series, a role he originally played in the BBC radio series under the name Brian Nesbit. He has appeared in films including Yes Man (2008), The Boat That Rocked (2009), Love Birds (2011), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Trolls (2016), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), Guns Akimbo (2019), Relax, I'm from the Future (2022), Uproar (2023), and Next Goal Wins (2023). From March 2022 to October 2023, he starred as Stede Bonnet alongside Taika Waititi in the HBO Max period romantic comedy series Our Flag Means Death.

Early life

Darby was born on 21 March 1974 in Auckland and grew up in the eastern Auckland suburb of Pakuranga. He attended Edgewater College in Auckland. A former soldier, he left the New Zealand Army in 1994 and began studies at the University of Canterburyin Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1996 he formed a comedy duo, Rhysently Granted, with Grant Lobban. After winning an open mic contest at Southern Blues Bar in Christchurch, the duo began performing at local venues.

Career

Rhys appeared in "Night Groovers" – 3rd collection of rADz – (radical art Haiku films by Yeti Productions) in 2000. Rhysently Granted performed at two international comedy festivals which led to Darby moving back to Auckland to seek more solo stand-up experience. After performing his first solo show at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Darby moved to the UK to pursue his career.

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's character was renamed to Murray Hewitt, the band's manager, for the Flight of the Conchords TV show. He 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" alongside tenor Andrew Drost.

Darby played the role of Norman, the boss of Jim Carrey's character in Yes Man. In July 2008 he appeared in a Nike advertisement featuring Roger Federer; he played an impostor posing as Federer's coach. Darby appeared on a British children's television programme The Slammer during its first series. He also appeared in several advertisements for New Zealand mobile phone company 2degrees. He appeared on Soccer AM on 18 October 2008 and on Never Mind The Buzzcocks on 23 October.

Darby performed his stand-up show It's Rhys Darby Night at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 6–15 August 2009, at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London from 27 July to 1 August, and toured New Zealand in October and November in 2009. He 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, while home in New Zealand, he began filming TV ads for NZ's new mobile network, 2degrees, and appeared in shows: Rocked the Nation 2, Jaquie Brown Diaries and Intrepid Journeys. He 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. Darby became a climate ambassador for Greenpeace in its Sign On climate campaign. He published a poem and video in support of the campaign. In 2009 Darby became a part of the New Zealand TV ONE series Intrepid Journeys, Season 5, touring Rwanda. On 10 August 2010, Entertainment Weekly claimed that Darby was in consideration for a role on The Office on NBC after Steve Carell left at the end of the 2011 season; however, it did not materialise.

In May 2011, he also filmed a pilot for a Channel 4 sitcom in the UK, The Fun Police. The pilot was broadcast on 16 September. In 2011, Darby and family moved to the US for Darby to take a role in the CBS sitcom How to Be a Gentleman. Darby's second DVD It's Rhys Darby Night! was released in NZ on 12 December 2011. He wrote a self-described "autobiographical space novel" entitled This Way to Spaceship, which was released on 12 April 2012. On 20 May 2012, Darby was awarded the Fred Award by the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for his show of the same name as his book.

In 2013, he was responsible for flying 'Cornish rappers' Hedluv + Passman to New Zealand for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. This was followed by an appearance on Seven Sharp, where he introduced 'his rappers' to the New Zealand public. From 2013 to 2025, Darby co-hosted the cryptozoology-focused podcast The Cryptid Factor with Dan Schreiber, David Farrier and Leon 'Buttons' Kirkbeck. The podcast recorded its final episode at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2025.

Darby summited Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2013 as part of a World Vision team of celebrities that included Olympian Mahé Drysdale and musician Boh Runga. On 8 November 2013, Darby made an appearance and performed some standup comedy in his capacity as second guest on the Late Show with David Letterman. He portrayed Anton in the 2014 release comedy horror film What We Do in the Shadows.

In February 2016, he played Guy Mann in the third episode ("Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster") of season 10 of The X-Files. Darby, a long-time fan of the show, was thrilled by his experience on set. He saw this as an opportunity that only comes around every so often and said he'd return to the set the first chance he received. In 2018, Darby participated in a video together with Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern as part of a tourism campaign for the country in which they discussed why New Zealand was being excluded from world maps so frequently.

Darby played the role of Nigel Billingsley in the 2017 film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and the 2019 sequel Jumanji: The Next Level. In 2025, it was announced that Darby would be reprising his role in the newest Jumanji installment. From 2022 to 2023, Darby starred in the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death as pirate captain Stede Bonnet. The series received critical acclaim for its LGBTQ representation, in part due to the romantic relationship between Bonnet and Blackbeard, played by co-star Taika Waititi. Critics also praised Darby’s portrayal of Bonnet, calling it his “career-best” work and one of the best TV performances of 2022. His performance earned several award nominations, including Peabody, Hollywood Critics Association and Astra Award nods. Darby has referred to Our Flag Means Death as “the best thing I’ve ever done” and his favourite TV project, along with calling the role of Bonnet the most “challenging” and “complex” role of his career.

Darby was tapped to host the 51st International Emmy Awards in November 2023. He later presented at the 75th Creative Arts Emmy Awards in January 2024 and the Art Directors Guild Awards in February 2024. In June 2024, Darby starred as the Interim Deputy Director of “Turalism” in a series of promotional videos for the fifth expansion of "Final Fantasy XIV", Dawntrail, taking the form of a tourism advertisement for the expansion's central setting, the continent of Tural. In November 2024, Darby announced he would be returning to stand-up comedy after nearly a decade long hiatus with a new show called The Legend Returns. The show toured throughout New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Ireland from May to August 2025. The show is set to debut in America in May 2026 as part of the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival.

Personal life

Darby is the youngest of five children and grew up with a single mother. He was particularly close with his sister Linda, who helped mother him after their father left.

He met Rosie Carnahan, while performing stand-up comedy at her café in Christchurch. She became his manager, they married in 2004, and they have two sons. As of July 2014, Darby and his family live in Los Angeles. Darby says that he is on the spectrum and has ADHD.

Filmography

Film

Television

Television appearances as himself

Comedy specials

• Imagine That! (2008)
• It's Rhys Darby Night! (2011)
• This Way to Spaceship (2012)
• I'm a Fighter Jet (2017)
• Mystic Time Bird (2021)

Video games

Accolades, awards, and nominations

External links

• 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• 17 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• at IMDb