He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess. He played Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick, the Russian assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy, and Ghost in Pathfinder and won acclaim for his performances in New Zealand films The Price of Milk and Out of the Blue. His father, a German immigrant, owned a leather goods retail store, and his mother once worked for Film Facilities in Wellington, through which the young Urban was exposed to New Zealand cinema and developed an interest in the film industry. Urban attended St Mark's Church School, where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line in one episode of the New Zealand television series 'Pioneer Woman', but he did not act professionally again until after high school. He attended Wellington College in 1990, then Victoria University of Wellington in the Bachelor of Arts programme for one year, but left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theatre roles in the Wellington area, and eventually he moved to Auckland, where he was offered many guest roles in local shows (one of which was playing a heroin addict in the police drama Shark in the Park). The role which launched him to local fame was that of gay paramedic Jamie Forrest in the hit New Zealand TV series Shortland Street. He appeared on the show for the 1993–1994 season. Urban then moved to Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia in 1995, returning to New Zealand the following year.
Movie | Untitled Star Trek 4 | Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy | 2025 |
Movie | Mortal Kombat 2 | Johnny Cage | 2025-10-23 |
Movie | The Bluff | 2025 | |
Series | ARK: The Animated Series | Bob (voice) | 2024-03-21 |
Movie | The Sea Beast | Jacob Holland (voice) | 2022-06-24 |
Movie | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Stormtrooper (uncredited) | 2019-12-18 |
Series | The Boys | Billy Butcher | 2019-07-25 |
Movie | Bent | Danny Gallagher | 2018-03-09 |
Movie | Hangman | Detective Ruiney | 2017-12-22 |
Movie | Acts of Vengeance | Strode | 2017-10-27 |
Movie | Thor: Ragnarok | Skurge | 2017-10-02 |
Movie | Star Trek Beyond | Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy | 2016-07-07 |
Movie | Pete's Dragon | Gavin | 2016-08-10 |
Movie | Building Star Trek | Himself | 2016-09-04 |
Movie | 50 Years of Star Trek | Self | 2016-08-14 |
Movie | For the Love of Spock | Self | 2016-09-09 |
Movie | Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD | Self | 2014-09-19 |
Movie | Lennon or McCartney | Himself (archive footage) | 2014-12-12 |
Movie | The Loft | Vincent Stevens | 2014-10-14 |
Movie | Star Trek Into Darkness | Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy | 2013-05-05 |
Movie | Riddick | Lord Vaako | 2013-09-02 |
Movie | Riddick: Blindsided | Vaako | 2013-07-26 |
Movie | Walking with Dinosaurs | Uncle Zack (voice) | 2013-12-18 |
Series | Almost Human | John Kennex | 2013-11-17 |
Movie | Dredd | Judge Dredd | 2012-09-07 |
Movie | Priest | Black Hat | 2011-05-05 |
Movie | RED | William Cooper | 2010-10-13 |
Movie | And Soon the Darkness | Michael | 2010-02-25 |
Movie | Star Trek | Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy | 2009-05-06 |
Movie | Reclaiming the Blade | Self | 2009-04-15 |
Movie | Black Water Transit | Earl Pike | 2009-05-13 |
Series | Comanche Moon | Woodrow F. Call | 2008-01-13 |
Movie | Pathfinder | Ghost | 2007-01-11 |
Movie | Out of the Blue | Nick Harvey | 2006-10-12 |
Movie | Doom | John "Reaper" Grimm | 2005-10-20 |
Movie | The Bourne Supremacy | Kirill | 2004-07-23 |
Movie | The Chronicles of Riddick | Vaako | 2004-06-11 |
Movie | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Éomer | 2003-12-17 |
Movie | Ghost Ship | Munder | 2002-10-25 |
Movie | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Éomer | 2002-12-18 |
Movie | The Price of Milk | Rob | 2000-10-13 |
Movie | The Irrefutable Truth About Demons | Harry Ballard | 2000-05-01 |
Movie | Heaven | Sweeper | 1999-04-29 |
Movie | Via Satellite | Paul | 1998-10-15 |
Series | Xena: Warrior Princess | Caesar | 1995-09-04 |
Series | Riding High | James Westwood | 1995-12-31 |
Series | Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | Unknown | 1995-01-29 |
Series | White Fang | David | 1993-09-17 |
Series | Shortland Street | Paramedic Jamie Forrest | 1992-05-25 |
Movie | Chunuk Bair | Wellington soldier | 1992-04-25 |