Darby performing with Flight of the Conchords in June 2007
|Born||Rhys Montague Darby
21 March 1974
Rhys Darby (born 21 March 1974) is an actor and comedian from New Zealand, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. Darby was nominated for the Billy T Award in 2001 and 2002. He also won the 2012 Fred (Dagg) award at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, for Best NZ show.
Darby is best known for playing Murray Hewitt, the band manager of Flight of the Conchords in the HBO television series, a role he originally played in the BBC radio series under the name Brian Nesbit.
Life and career 
A former soldier (signaller trained in morse code), he left the New Zealand Army in 1994 and began studies at the University of Canterbury. In 1996 he formed a comedy duo, Rhysently Granted, with Grant Lobban. After winning an open mic contest at Southern Blues Bar in Christchurch they began performing at local venues. Rhysently Granted performed at two international comedy festivals which led to Darby moving up 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 further. At the same time, fellow Kiwis and friends Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement were dipping their toes in the waters at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Darby plays Murray, the band's manager, on Flight of the Conchords TV show. He also 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" along with tenor Andrew Drost.
Darby played the role of Norman, the boss of Jim Carrey's character in the film Yes Man. In July 2008 he appeared in a Nike advertisement featuring Roger Federer, he played an impostor posing as Federer's coach.
He appeared on a British children's television program The Slammer during the first season of the show. He is also doing several advertisements for the mobile phone company 2degrees. He appeared on Soccer AM on the 18th of October 2008 and on Never Mind The Buzzcocks on the 23rd.
The DVD of his live performance Imagine That! has gone platinum in New Zealand.
Rhys Darby's hair colour is self-described as Electric Copper in the episode of Flight of the Conchords entitled Murray Takes It to the Next Level. He also refers to this in his stand-up show It's Rhys Darby Night which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 6–15 August 2009, The Bloomsbury Theatre in London from the 27 July – 1 August and toured around New Zealand with in October and November that year.
Darby 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 whilst home in New Zealand he began filming T.V. ads for NZ's new mobile network 2degrees and appearing in NZ shows Rocked the Nation 2, Jaquie Brown Diaries and Intrepid Journeys. He has also branched out in to producing live comedy with his wife and their company Awesomeness International. At the NZ International Comedy Festival they produced shows for local comedians Brendhan Lovegrove, Jeremy Corbett and Paul Ego. He became a climate ambassador for Greenpeace in its Sign On climate campaign and published a poem on Youtube in support of the campaign.
As of October 2009, Darby is co-hosting a Cryptozoology themed radio show with New Zealand journalist David Farrier on New Zealand radio station 95bFM called the Cryptid Factor.
Darby took the title role in the Roughcut TV pilot "The Amazing Dermot" was aired on the UK's Channel 4 in 2009.
In January 2010, Rosie announced the birth of their second son, Theo.
In 2010, Darby appeared as a recurring character role as an enthusiastic interviewer in a series of ads by Hewlett-Packard Company.
On 10 August 2010, Entertainment Weekly claimed that Darby was in consideration to have a part in the television series The Office replacing Steve Carell's character when the actor left at the end of the 2011 season. Darby confirmed on The Kevin and Bean Show that NBC did not negotiate further for the role and he is now involved in a pilot for CBS. In May 2011, he also filmed a pilot for a Channel 4 sitcom in the UK, The Fun Police. This was broadcast on 16 September.
In 2011, Darby and family moved back to the US from NZ for Darby to take a role in the short lived CBS sitcom How to be a Gentleman with David Hornsby, Kevin Dillon, Mary-Lynn Rasjkub. He also fronted a promotional video for NZFact, an organisation owned by the MPAA that lobbied for the NZ "three-strikes" internet downloading law (section 92A) which threatened New Zealanders for downloading copyrighted music. This law change was strongly objected to by many New Zealanders, despite being approved by both the Labour and National political parties. Darby justified his appearance on this DVD saying: "I recorded something saying you should not pirate DVDs. That is it. I haven’t done anything wrong."
Darby's second DVD "It's Rhys Darby Night!" was released in NZ on 12 December 2011.
Darby has also written a self-described "autobiographical space novel" entitled "This Way to Spaceship", which was released on 12 April 2012. On May 20, 2012, Darby was awarded the Fred Award by the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for his show of the same name as his book.
His show This Way To Spaceship is being released on DVD in late 2012.
|2007–2009||Flight of the Conchords||Murray Hewitt|
|2009||The Jaquie Brown Diaries||Terence Ben’et|
|2009||Comedy Showcase The Amazing Dermot||Dermot Flint|
|2011||How to Be a Gentleman||Mike|
|2011||Comedy Showcase The Fun Police||Leslie|
|2012||Jake and the Never Land Pirates||Percy|
|2009||The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio)||Angus 'The Nut' Nutford|
|2011||Coming and Going||Lee Leonetti|
Television Appearances 
|2001–2002||Billy T Award||Himself|
|2005||Mighty Truck Of Stuff||Himself|
|2007–2008||Sounds Like a Laugh||Himself|
|2008||Yo Gabba Gabba!||Himself|
|2008||The Comedy Store Live||Himself|
|2009||Rocked the Nation 2: 100 NZ Pop Culture Moments||Himself|
|2009||Spicks and Specks||Himself|
|2009||Thank God You're Here||Himself|
|2010||The Qantas TV and Film Awards||Host|
|2011||A Quiet Word With ...||Himself|
|2011||The Rob Brydon Show||Himself|
|2012||Mad Mad World||Himself|
|2012||The Comedy Marathon Spectacular||Himself|
- McDonald, Greer (7 November 2009). "Rhys Darby not planning to slow down". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
- Hunkin, Joanna (10 October 2008). "Roll call: Rhys Darby - present - Personalities - NZ Herald News". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- "Rhys Darby's review : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "Inside With: Rhys Darby By: Keith Huang". The Apiary. 13 August 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- Rhys Darby Biography[dead link]
- "Rhys Darby wins top NZ award". Television New Zealand. 21 May 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
- "Radio 2 Comedy". BBC. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "Performance in University Comedy Show". Youtube. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- ""Mrs Whippy" song by Rhysently Granted". Youtube. 2 April 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "Rhysently Granted performance in Christchurch bar 1997". Youtube. 10 April 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "May 2000 Stand-up Performance". Youtube. 2 September 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "Darby joins Jim Carrey movie : News 2007 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. 24 September 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- Brown, Rich (2 July 2008). "Roger Federer's coach 'revealed' in Nike advert". Telegraph. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "Rhys Darby: It's Rhys Darby Night | Edinburgh Festival Guide". Edinburghfestival.list.co.uk. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- "The Boat That Rocked" complete cast list
- "The Amazing Dermot – Production Details & Cast and Crew – British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- "Rhys Darby Welcomes Baby Boy Theo!".
- 3 Like0 Dislike0 Aug 10, 2010 by Brian Gallagher (10 August 2010). "The Office Seeking Danny McBride and Rhys Darby?". MovieWeb.com. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- "Vic Reeves and Rhys Darby to star in health and safety sitcom pilot". The British Comedy Guide. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
- "rhysdarby.com". How to Be a Gentleman.
- Pullar-Strecker, Tom (7 June 2011). "Rhys Darby defends anti-piracy message". The Dominion-Post. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rhys Darby|
- Official website
- Interview in The Apiary
- Interview on The Rock radio station
- Rhys Darby at the Internet Movie Database