Jemaine Clement

Jemaine Clement
Clement performing in New York in 2007.
Background information
Also known as	The Hiphopopotamus
Born	10 January 1974 (1974-01-10) (age 37)
Origin	Masterton, New Zealand [1]
Genres	Comedy, folk, acoustic
Occupations	Comedian, musician, actor
Instruments	Bass guitar, guitar, percussion, piano, ukulele, omnichord, drums, xylophone, synthesizer, vocals
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Sub Pop
Associated acts	Bret McKenzie, The Humourbeasts, Flight of the Conchords, So You're a Man

Jemaine Clement (born 10 January 1974) is a New Zealand comedian, actor and musician, best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Bret McKenzie.

Early life

Clement was born in New Zealand and raised by his Māori mother,^[2] in the Wairarapa region. He moved to New Zealand's capital Wellington, where he studied drama and film at Victoria University of Wellington. There he met Taika Waititi (a.k.a. Taika Cohen) with whom he went on to form So You're a Man and The Humourbeasts. In 2004, the Humourbeasts toured New Zealand in a stage show titled The Untold Tales of Maui,^[3] a rework of the traditional Maori legends of Māui. The duo received New Zealand's highest comedy honour, the Billy T Award.

Career

Music

Clement and Bret McKenzie formed Flight of the Conchords while at Victoria University. They have toured internationally and released four CDs: Folk the World Tour in 2002, The Distant Future EP in 2007, Flight of the Conchords in 2008 and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. The Conchords produced a six-part improvisational comedy radio program on BBC Radio 2 and have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show. After appearing in 2005 on HBO's One Night Stand, the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords.^[4] Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and was renewed for a second season, which aired on HBO in the US from January to March 2009.^[5] In December 2009, the Conchords announced the show would not have a third season.^[6]

Film and television

Clement has appeared in a number of feature films. His feature debut was in the kung fu comedy Tongan Ninja, directed by New Zealander Jason Stutter. He has worked with Stutter on two more movies to date: the low budget ghost comedy Diagnosis Death and the drama Predicament, based on the book by late New Zealand novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Clement also has a role in American comedy Gentlemen Broncos, directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess. This role landed him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. Though Gentlemen Broncos was almost universally panned by critics, some^[7] singled out Clement's performance for praise.

Clement has starred in a number of television commercials internationally and provided voiceovers for many others in New Zealand. In 1999, Clement was a Radio Awards Winner as writer for Trashed, for Channel Z, Wellington.^[8] In 2000 he was given a Special Radio Awards Commendation for The Sunglass Store.^[9] He also was a writer and cast member of the television shows Skitz and Tellylaughs in New Zealand.

On 5 February 2006, Outback Steakhouse began running a series of television commercials starring Clement during Super Bowl XL in which Clement pretends to be Australian and feigns an Australian accent. One of the long-running gags of Flight of the Conchords is the traditional ill-will between New Zealand and Australia and the differences between their accents. The campaign ended in July 2006.

Jemaine, along with fellow Conchord member Bret, was featured as one of 2008's "100 Sexiest People" in a special edition of the Australian magazine Who.^[10] Clement and fellow Conchord McKenzie guest starred as a pair of camp counselors in "Elementary School Musical", the season premiere of the 22nd season of The Simpsons, which aired on 26 September 2010.^[11] In May 2010, it was confirmed Clement will portray Boris (formerly named Yaz) in the upcoming science fiction film Men in Black III.^[12] Most recently, he voiced Jerry in Despicable Me as well as Nigel in Rio, and appeared in the film Dinner for Schmucks.

Personal life

In August 2008, Clement married his long time girlfriend, theater actress and playwright Miranda Manasiadis. Clement's first child, a son named Sophocles Iraia Clement, was born in October, 2008, in New York City.^[13]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	Blood Suckers	Vampire
1999	Fizz[14]	Chased Man	Short Film
2002	Tongan Ninja[15]	Action Fighter (Marvin)	Also Writer
2004	Futile Attraction	Editor
2006	What We Do In The Shadows	Director/Writer
2007	Eagle vs Shark	Jarrod
2007–2009	Flight of the Conchords	Jemaine Clemaine[16]	TV Series: 23 Episodes Also Writer/Executive Producer 2009 Emmy nomination for Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series
2008	The Drinky Crow Show	Alien	TV Series: 2 Episodes Voice Only
2009	Gentlemen Broncos	Ronald Chevalier	2010 Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male
	Diagnosis: Death	Garfield Olyphant
2010	Despicable Me	Jerry the Minion	Voice Only
	Predicament	Spook
	Dinner for Schmucks	Kieran Vollard
	The Simpsons	Ethan Ballantyne	Voice Only Episode: "Elementary School Musical"[11]
2011	Rio	Nigel	Voice Only
2012	Men in Black III	Boris[17]

References

1. ^ "Jemaine Clement Biography – Yahoo! Movies". Yahoo! Movies. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1808660276/bio. Retrieved 2010-07 17. 
2. ^ O'Neal, Sean (30 October 2009). "Interview: Jemaine Clement". AV Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/jemaine-clement,34769/. Retrieved 30 October 2009. "I’m part Maori. My mum’s Maori, and she raised me." 
3. ^ "Humourbeasts 'Tales Of Maui" Comes to ChCh". Scoop.co.nz. 17 September 2004. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0409/S00121.htm. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
4. ^ "BD Rumor Confirmed: Jemaine Clement Becomes 'Yaz' in 'Men in Black III'". Bloody-disgusting.com. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20279. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
5. ^ "Story – Entertainment". Calgary Herald. http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Flight+Conchords+defy+struggling+story/1231180/story.html. Retrieved 25 May 2010. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "10 December". Flight of the Conchords. http://flightoftheconchords.co.nz/2009/12/december-10th/. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
7. ^ Nathan Rabin (1 June 2010). "I Watched This On Purpose: Gentlemen Broncos". avclub.com. http://www.avclub.com/articles/gentlemen-broncos,41650/. 
8. ^ Thomas C Hokenson (24 April 1999). "1999 New England Radio Awards Finalists". Radiostationworld.com. http://radiostationworld.com/locations/new_zealand/radio-awards_1999.asp. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
9. ^ Thomas C Hokenson. "2000 New Zealand Radio Awards Finalists". Radiostationworld.com. http://radiostationworld.com/locations/new_zealand/radio-awards_2000.asp. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
10. ^ "Will Smith Pondering Return in 'Men in Black III'". Bloody-disgusting.com. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/19584. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
11. ^ ^{a b} Strachan, Alex (2 August 2010). "Gleeful over Glee: Cory Monteith to appear on The Simpsons". Canada.com. http://www.canada.com/Gleeful+over+Glee+Cory+Monteith+appear+Simpsons/3350970/story.html. Retrieved 2 August 2010. 
12. ^ "Video: Will Smith Teases 'Men in Black 3D'". Bloody-disgusting.com. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20542. Retrieved 11 June 2010. 
13. ^ Scott Wolf, on Scott Wolf Spent Wife’s Labor Sobering Up (29 March 2010). "Jemaine Clement Welcomes Son Sophocles Iraia". Celebrity-babies.com. http://celebrity-babies.com/2008/11/04/jemaine-clement-sophocles/. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
14. ^ "Jemaine Clement". What the Folk!. http://www.whatthefolk.net/jemaine.htm. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
15. ^ "tongan ninja tonga taimi o at". Tonganninja.com. http://www.tonganninja.com/. Retrieved 25 May 2010. 
16. ^ Vernon, Polly. The accidental sex gods. The Observer, 10 February 2008.
17. ^ Men in Black III (2012) - IMDb

External links

Biography portal

• Jemaine Clement at the Internet Movie Database
• Flight of the Conchords official site
• What the Folk! Flight of the Conchords fan site
• NZ on screen profile
• BBC Radio 2
• Flight of the Conchords official MySpace

Persondata
Name	Clement, Jemaine
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1974-1-10
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death