Cliff Curtis was born in Rotorua, New Zealand, on July 27, 1968.
He is of New Zealand Maori descent (with Ngati Hauiti and Te Arawa tribal affiliations). He enrolled at the New Zealand Drama School, and then the Teatro Dmitri Scoula in Switzerland.
After returning to New Zealand from Europe, he was cast in La leçon de piano (1993). Subsequent roles in New Zealand include the camp melodrama Desperate Remedies (1993), the grueling urban drama L'âme des guerriers (1994), and the lighthearted comedy Jubilee (2000).
In Hollywood, Curtis has played a range of different roles and ethnicities in films. He plays a Colombian in Blow (2001), an Arab in Les rois du désert (1999) and Révélations (1999), a Latino in Training Day (2001) and Le maître du jeu (2003), and a drug dealer of ambiguous ethnicity in À tombeau ouvert (1999). However, he is probably best known for his role as Paikea's father Porourangi, in Paï (2002).
