Daniel Gillies

LOS ANGELES – AUG 10: Gillies arriving to CW Premiere Party on August 10, 2011 in Burbank, CA, DFree/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Daniel John Gillies

Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Date of Birth: March 14, 1976

Ethnicity: Scottish, other

Daniel Gillies is a New Zealand-Canadian actor, film producer, director, and screenwriter. He played Elijah Mikaelson on the series The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals, and also had roles on the show Saving Hope and in the film Spider-Man 2. He wrote, directed, and starred in the film Broken Kingdom.

Daniel was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to parents from New Zealand. When he was five, his parents decided to return to their native country, and the family lived in Invercargill and then Hamilton. His father is a pediatrician and his mother is a nurse. When embarking on an acting career, Daniel lived in Australia, Canada, and then Los Angeles, California. He has two children with his former wife, American actress Rachael Leigh Cook.

Daniel’s great-great-great-grandparents were renowned otolaryngologist Sir Harold Gillies (Harold Delf Gillies), known as the “father of modern plastic surgery,” and his wife Kathleen Margaret Jackson. Sir Harold was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, the son of politician Robert Gillies, who was a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Bruce, from 1884 to 1885. Robert was the son of John Gillies, who was born in Rothesay, Scotland, and was a lawyer and Otago Provincial Council member; and of Isabella Lillie.