Lee Pace

Lee Grinner Pace was born on March 25, 1979, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Charlotte, a schoolteacher, and James, an engineer. As a child, he spent several years in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked in the oil business, before the family relocated to Houston, Texas. Pace attended Klein High School in Spring, Texas, where his classmates included actor Matt Bomer. Before completing his secondary education, he briefly left school to perform at Houston's Alley Theatre, appearing in productions of The Spider's Web and The Greeks, before returning to graduate.

In 1997, Pace was accepted into the Juilliard School's Drama Division as a member of Group 30, a cohort that also included Anthony Mackie and Tracie Thoms. During his time there, he performed in Romeo and Juliet as Romeo, Richard II in the title role, and Julius Caesar as Cassius, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree upon graduation.

Following Juilliard, Pace appeared in several off-Broadway productions, including The Credeaux Canvas, The Fourth Sister, and Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy, the last of which earned him a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Actor. In 2006, he received a second Lortel nomination in the same category for his work in Peter Morris's two-character play Guardians.

Pace made his Broadway debut in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, portraying Bruce Niles at the Golden Theatre beginning April 27, 2011. The production ran for 96 performances, closing on July 10, 2011. His performance as part of that ensemble earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. In late 2012, he was cast as composer Vincenzo Bellini in Terrence McNally's Golden Age at the Manhattan Theatre Club, with previews beginning November 15, 2012, delayed from the originally scheduled November 13 date due to Hurricane Sandy, and the official run opening December 4, 2012. Pace returned to Broadway in 2018 to play Joe Pitt in the National Theatre's revival of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, which encompassed both Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika. Previews at the Neil Simon Theatre began February 23, 2018, with the production opening March 25, 2018.

Pace first gained wide attention in film through his 2003 role as Calpernia Addams in Soldier's Girl, for which he won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. He subsequently appeared in Tarsem Singh's The Fall in 2006, as well as in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Possession, The White Countess, Infamous, When in Rome, The Good Shepherd, and Marmaduke. In 2011, he was cast by Steven Spielberg to portray Fernando Wood in Lincoln, a film that received 12 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. That same year, Peter Jackson announced that Pace had been cast as Thranduil the Elvenking in his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Pace made three trips to New Zealand for the role, which appeared across all three films in the trilogy: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, released December 2012; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, released December 2013; and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, released December 17, 2014. In 2012, he also appeared as the nomadic vampire Garrett in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Pace joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the villain Ronan the Accuser in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, a role he later reprised in Captain Marvel.

On television, Pace played Aaron Tyler in the 2004 series Wonderfalls, co-created by Bryan Fuller, who subsequently cast him in the lead role of Ned in Pushing Daisies, which debuted on ABC in October 2007 and returned for a second and final season on October 1, 2008. His portrayal of Ned earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Pace later starred as Joe MacMillan in the period drama Halt and Catch Fire and, beginning in 2021, took on the role of galactic emperor Brother Day in the science fiction series Foundation, based on the stories of Isaac Asimov.