BIOGRAPHY
MARTON CSOKAS (pronounced CHO-kash)
- Date of Birth: June 30, 1966
- Born on the South Island of New Zealand
- Father (also named Marton Csokas) is Hungarian; a mechanical engineer who fled Hungary after World War II.
- Mother is a New Zealander of English-Irish-Danish descent; a nurse.
- Has one younger brother, Robert.
- He is a citizen of both New Zealand and Hungary as his father is Hungarian-born.
- Attended King's College, an independent secondary school in New Zealand, originally a boys-only school. The school was founded in 1896; in 1922 the school moved to its present site in Otahuhu.
- Marton attended Canterbury University in Christchurch, and is a graduate of the New Zealand Drama School as well as the co-founder of the Stronghold Theatre.
Marton Csokas was born in Invercargill, Aotearoa, New Zealand. He is a citizen of the European Union, Hungary, and is a permanent resident of the United States.
His academic training began at Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he commenced a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History, and then transferred to, Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa/ The New Zealand Drama School, graduating in December, 1989.
His first role was in Te Whanau a Tuanui Jones by Apairana Taylor at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington New Zealand, (1990). He has since had an eclectic career of theatre, television and film.
His first film role was in the Peter Jackson produced feature, "Jack Brown Genius", (Dennis). He has since worked with the likes of Ridley Scott in "Kingdom of Heaven", (Guy de Lusignan), Paul Greengrass in "Bourne Supremacy", (Jada), and Peter Jackson again in, "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy", (Celeborn).
His commercial work is comprised of, "XXX",(Yorgi), Aeon Flux, (Goodchild), and Mirimax's, "The Great Raid", (Redding), directed by John Dahl. Some of the Independent films he appears in are Christine Jeffs', Rain,(Cady), which featured in Cannes Director's Fortnight 2001, another with Malcolm McDowell, in the disturbing David Grieco film, "Evilenko", and alongside Ian McKellen and Natasha Richardson as 'Edgar Stark' in the David McKenzie directed picture, "Asylum".
His stage highlights have been the Tom Stoppard penned, "Arcadia", as Septimus, in "Julius Ceasar" as Brutus, both with the Auckland Theatre Company, and most recently the Lope de Vega play, "Peribanez Y El Comendador De Ocana", and in "Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf",(George), at Company B, Belvoir St Theatre).
His television work has been recognised with an Emmy nomination for NBC's "The Three Stooges"(Ted Healey),and an AFTA nomination for "GP", in the role of a paedophile. He did one year of "Shortland St." in NZ, nine episodes of "Xena", as Borias, and numerous episodes of assorted television dramas in both New Zealand and Australia, including the acclaimed mini series with Greta Scacchi, "The Farm".
He has inherited some of his talents from his father who is a trained opera singer, and at one time, a trapeze artist in the Hungarian Circus. His mother is a nurse who resides in Tasmania.
* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0190744/bio
"Up till the age of 13, he wrote his name in English fashion, despite having Hungarian citizenship. According to him, he realized at the age of 13 how important his roots are for him; since then, he uses the accents while writing his name [Márton Csókás]." **
**translated from: Székesfehérvár, June 6, 2005
|