Karl Urban

He grew up in Wellington with a mother who worked for Film Facilities, which meant he spent his childhood around film sets before he ever tried to act. His first role came at eight: a single line in a New Zealand TV show. The real break was accidental. A director friend of Peter Jackson showed him a rough cut featuring Urban, and Jackson needed someone for Eomer. That's how you end up in The Lord of the Rings. The role opened the franchise door. Star Trek, Dredd, The Bourne Supremacy followed. He built a career as the reliable guy who shows up in blockbusters and makes the most of whatever screen time they give him.

Billy Butcher changed the equation. The Boys gave him a lead role with actual emotional range, something the franchise supporting work rarely did, and he ran with it. The show became one of Prime Video's biggest hits, and his version of Butcher (foul-mouthed, morally compromised, occasionally sympathetic) became the hook audiences came back for. He signed on as Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2, adding another franchise to the pile. He's one of those actors who collects major properties without ever quite becoming a household name, which is its own kind of trick.

He spent the entirety of Dredd (2012) wearing a helmet, which meant the whole film ran on voice and body language alone. It bombed theatrically and became a cult object, which is the pattern. His McCoy in Star Trek reportedly moved Leonard Nimoy to tears at a press conference. On the set of The Chronicles of Riddick, he spent his downtime playing Dungeons and Dragons with Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, and Thandiwe Newton. He keeps ending up in situations that sound made up. His full name is Karl-Heinz Urban, his father came from Germany to sell leather goods in Wellington, and somehow all of this resulted in Billy Butcher.