Jeffrey Thomas is a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

-born New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 actor, best known for his television roles. He rose to prominence in New Zealand in the late 1980s with the lead role of Inspector "Sharky" Finn in the TVNZ police drama series Shark in the Park, and is also well-known for his roles in two long-running New Zealand soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s, Mercy Peak

Mercy Peak

Mercy Peak was a New Zealand drama television series that ran for three seasons on TV One between 2001 and 2004.-Cast:*Sara Wiseman as Nicky Somerville*Jeffrey Thomas as William Kingsley...

and Shortland Street

Shortland Street

Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera, first broadcast on Television New Zealand's TV2 on 25 May 1992. It is the country's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 4500 episodes and 19 years, and is one of the most watched television programs in...

, and his distinctive voice can be heard narrating a large number of documentaries.

Internationally, Thomas is best known for his roles of Jason

Jason

Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...

 in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a television series, filmed in New Zealand and the United States. It was produced from 1995, and was very loosely based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles...

and narrator in Costa Botes

Costa Botes

Costa Botes is a New Zealand writer, director and cinematographer.-Movie-making career:Botes is best known in New Zealand for Forgotten Silver , a documentary he co-wrote and co-directed with Peter Jackson...

's and Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...

's mockumentary Forgotten Silver

Forgotten Silver

Forgotten Silver is a New Zealand film mockumentary that purports to tell the story of a pioneering New Zealand filmmaker. It was written and directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, both of whom appear in the film in their roles as makers of the documentary.-Synopsis:Forgotten Silver purports...

.

Thomas is a graduate of Liverpool University and Oxford University in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Bilingual in English and Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, he is also a writer of dramatic material in both languages. He has scripted several episodes of New Zealand television programmes, and also of the Welsh drama series Mwy Na Phapur Newydd. He has also written a play, Playing the Game, which has been performed in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom, a short film (Making Money), and two books, one of them a collection of stories for children.

More recently he is known for his role as Titus Lentulus Batiatus on the Starz series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena is a Starz television mini-series and prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which premiered January 21, 2011. The series follows the character Gannicus , the first gladiator to become Champion of Capua representing Lentulus Batiatus...

.

Thomas is to reunite with Peter Jackson in the upcoming The Hobbit film production, where he'll be playing the Dwarf King Thror.

External links

• TVNZ bio page