Jemaine Clement

Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement (born 10 January 1974) is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the same name for both the BBC and HBO, for which he received six Primetime Emmy nominations. He has had featured parts in films such as Eagle vs Shark (2007), Men in Black 3 (2012), People Places Things (2015), Humor Me (2017), The Festival (2018) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). He has also done voice-work for Despicable Me (2010), Rio (2011), Rio 2 (2014), Moana (2016) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017). In 2014, he made his directorial debut with What We Do in the Shadows, which he also co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in with Taika Waititi, and later adapted into a show for FX Television series of the same name. Early life Clement was born on 10 January 1974 in Masterton in the Wairarapa, and was raised there in a working-class family by his mother and grandmother Maikara with his two brothers. Clement is of Māori (Ngāti Kahungunu) descent through his mother, and a direct descendant of the (chief) Iraia Te Ama-o-te-rangi Te Whaiti, who is his great-great-great grandfather. His Pākehā father, Robert, was employed at the freezing works and struggled with alcoholism, leaving home when Clement was a child. Robert would later become a stained glass artist in Midhurst, Taranaki; Jemaine would later reconnect with his father as an adult and now enjoys a "strong and loving" relationship with him. Clement's mother and grandmother were strong influences on him as a child, inspiring his sense of humour. Despite having a strong connection to his Māori ethnicity through visiting relatives regularly on trips to various marae, bans on the Māori language being spoken in schools meant Clement grew up in an almost entirely English-speaking environment. He has talked of his regrets about this and has emotionally spoken of the physical abuse his grandmother suffered at school for speaking te reo Māori.