Profile Text
Urban in 2011, photo by prphotos.com
Birth Name: Karl-Heinz Urban
Place of Birth: Wellington, New Zealand
Date of Birth: 7 June, 1972
Ethnicity: * father – German * mother – possibly Welsh
Karl Urban is a New Zealand actor. His roles include the series Shark in the Park , Homeward Bound , Shortland Street , Riding High , Xena: Warrior Princess , Comanche Moon , Almost Human , The Boys , and Ark: The Animated Series ; the films Heaven (1998), The Irrefutable Truth about Demons , The Price of Milk , Ghost Ship (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , The Chronicles of Riddick , The Bourne Supremacy , Doom (2005), Out of the Blue (2006), Pathfinder (2007), Star Trek (2009), and its sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond ; Black Water Transit , And Soon the Darkness , Red (2010), Priest (2011), Dredd (2012), Walking with Dinosaurs , The Loft (2014), Pete’s Dragon (2016), Thor: Ragnarok , Acts of Vengeance , Hangman (2017), Bent (2018), The Sea Beast (2022), The Bluff , and Mortal Kombat II (2026); and the video game Ark: Survival Ascended .
He is the son of Lorraine, who worked for Film Facilities in Wellington, and Jürgen Urban, who owned a leather goods store. His father was German. He has two children with his former wife, makeup artist Natalie Wihongi.
Karl’s paternal grandfather was Johannes Karl Gustav Urban (the son of Ferdinand Urban and Elise Margarethe Auguste Russland). Johannes was born in Spremberg, Massen-Niederlausitz, Brandenburg, Germany.
Karl’s paternal grandmother was named Irma Liedke. Irma was born in Karthaus/Kartuzy, now Poland.
Karl’s maternal grandfather’s surname evidently was Williams.
Source: Genealogy of Karl Urban (focusing on his father’s side) – https://www.geni.com