# Matthew Sunderland

Matthew Sunderland (born c. 1972) is a New Zealand actor, writer, and director. He performed the lead role of David Gray in the feature film Out of the Blue, based on the events of the Aramoana Massacre. At the New Zealand Screen Awards in 2008 he won Best Actor Award for this role.

## Education

Sunderland graduated from Toi Whakaari in 1997.

## Career

Sunderland starred as Uncle Rory in Daniel Borgman's debut feature The Weight of Elephants. He was nominated for a Best Actor Award in the 2006 NZ Screen Awards for Nature's Way, which screened In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.
His other feature film roles include A Song of Good, Christmas, Stringer Woodenhead Existence, and The Devil's Rock.
Sunderland made his directorial and screenwriting debut with the short film Tuffy, which deals with estrangement between a father and son, in small town New Zealand.
In 2013, Sunderland played in the stage adaptation of Kate Grenville’s Booker Prize-shortlisted The Secret River with the Sydney Theatre Company, which toured throughout Australia. He also appeared in Shortland Street as White Dragon, in a storyline concluding the three-year Kieran Mitchell story arc.
In 2016, Sunderland played the role of a drunken man resisting alien abduction in the music video for "Bergschrund" by DJ Shadow and Nils Frahm.
Sunderland played the chemist, Joseph Pritchard in the 2020 miniseries The Luminaries.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1992 | Desperate Remedies | Chorus #15 |
| 1992 | Absent Without Leave | Paul |
| 2003 | Christmas | Brett |
| 2003 | Woodenhead | Strong Man |
| 2006 | Out of the Blue | David Gray |
| 2007 | The Last Magic Show | Lemuel |
| 2008 | A Song of Good | Denis |
| 2009 | The Strength of Water | Hunter |
| 2009 | Under the Mountain | Wilberforce Drone 1 |
| 2010 | Tracker | Posse Soldier Crowther |
| 2011 | The Devil's Rock | Colonel Klaus Meyer |
| 2012 | Existence | Rider |
| 2013 | The Weight of Elephants | Uncle Rory |
| 2014 | The Little Death | Wiry Man |
| 2015 | Backtrack | Steve |
| 2016 | The Lost City of Z | Dan |
| 2017 | 6 Days | Tom Lovett |
| 2018 | The Nightingale | Davey / Settler 2 |
| 2019 | Savage | Dad |
| 2020 | Bloody Hell | Father |
| 2022 | The Stranger | Controller / Detective Sergeant Cross |
| 2022 | Pearl | Pearl's Father |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | Shepherd | Episode: "Promises" |
| 1999 | Duggan | Private Ewen Daly | Episode: "Last Resort" |
| 2001 | Cleopatra 2525 | Tox | Episode: "In Your Boots" |
| 2004 | Power Rangers Dino Thunder | Monster General #2 | Episode: "Lost & Found in Translation" |
| 2005 | Mataku | The Viper | Episode: "The Photo - Te Whakaahua" |
| 2005 | Power Rangers S.P.D. | Green Eyes | Episode: "Perspectives" |
| 2005 | Talent | Geoff | Television film |
| 2008 | Kiss Me Deadly | Vigo | Television film |
| 2009 | Piece of My Heart | Sharp | Television film |
| 2010 | This Is Not My Life | The Cleaner | 2 episodes |
| 2013 | Top of the Lake | Voice of Choppy 1 | Episode: "Searchers Voice" |
| 2013 | Harry | Spud | 4 episodes |
| 2016 | Rake | Phil | Episode #4.5 |
| 2017 | Wanted | Bryce | 4 episodes |
| 2020 | The Luminaries | Joseph Pritchard | 6 episodes |
| 2024 | Plum | Bukowski | 4 episodes |