Daniel Gillies

Gillies was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to parents from New Zealand. When he was five, his parents decided to return to their native New Zealand, and moved to Invercargill and then to Hamilton. Though born into a family of strong medical background (his father is a pediatrician, his mother a nurse, and his great-great-great-grandfather was the renowned ENT/plastic surgery pioneer Sir Harold Gillies), he became interested in acting because he said it was “the only thing I was ever any good at”.[1]

Frustrated with the lack of opportunities in New Zealand, he moved to Sydney, Australia for six weeks in 2001 before going to Canada for two months, where he worked as a waiter and dishwasher until deciding to move to Los Angeles, USA.[2