Marton Csokas

Marton Paul Csokas is a New Zealand actor born on 30 June 1966 in Invercargill, the son of Margaret Christine Csokas, a nurse of English, Irish, and Danish descent, and Márton Csókás I, a mechanical engineer of Hungarian origin who worked for E. Hayes & Sons. Csokas holds dual New Zealand and Hungarian citizenship. He trained at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, earning a Diploma in Acting in 1989.

Csokas began his screen career in 1990, appearing as Terry Mercer in an episode of the New Zealand drama series Shark in the Park. He went on to play Leonard Rossi-Dodds on the long-running soap opera Shortland Street from 1993 to 1995, and starred in the 1996 romantic drama film Broken English. From 1997 to 2001, he held a recurring role on Xena: Warrior Princess as the character Borias. His international profile grew substantially when he portrayed Lord Celeborn in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003, and played the villain Yorgi in XXX in 2002. Further film roles followed, including Jarda in The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, Guy de Lusignan in Kingdom of Heaven and Trevor Goodchild in Æon Flux, both in 2005.

In 2007, Csokas portrayed Hora in the drama film Romulus, My Father, a performance that earned him both an AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actor. His 2012 appearance in Dead Europe brought him a second AACTA nomination in the same category. He is a three-time AACTA Award nominee in total. In 2014, he appeared in Noah, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and The Equalizer, in which he played Nicolai Itchenko. That same year he starred as the superintendent in the Discovery Channel miniseries Klondike, and in 2015 he portrayed General Thomas Gage in the History Channel miniseries Sons of Liberty.

In May 2015, Csokas joined the cast of AMC's martial arts drama Into the Badlands as Quinn, described as the most powerful baron in the badlands. The series ran for three seasons before its cancellation in 2019. His subsequent film work includes the Jeff Nichols-directed drama Loving in 2016 alongside Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, the comedy-drama Burn Your Maps with Vera Farmiga, the supernatural thriller Voice from the Stone with Emilia Clarke in 2017, and Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House with Liam Neeson. In 2021, he appeared in Juniper with Charlotte Rampling and in Ridley Scott's historical drama The Last Duel.

Csokas's stage work spans multiple countries and decades. In New Zealand during the 1990s, he performed in productions of works by Tom Stoppard and William Shakespeare. In Australia, his credits include Peribáñez in 2006 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2007, both with Company B at Belvoir, the latter earning him a nomination for Best Male Actor in a Play at the 2008 Helpmann Awards for his portrayal of George. On Broadway, Csokas appeared in The Parisian Woman in 2017.