Elijah Wood - T V & Movie Producers, Family and Life

Elijah Wood was born to Warren and Debra Wood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His parents were delicatessen operators. He was the second child of the couple and had two siblings, a brother Zachariah and sister Hannah.

He came from a mixed ancestry of English, German, Austrian, and Danish, and was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Ever since an early age, he showed signs of having being blessed with a gift for performance. He started modelling at the age of seven and took piano lessons to polish his musical abilities.

It was during his years at the elementary school that he appeared in The Sound of Music and played the titular character in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. he even served as the choir member in the production, ‘See How They Run’

Inspired by his natural acumen for modelling and acting, his family shifted base to Los Angeles, where he was exposed to bigger, better and shining prospects. He registered for the International Modelling and Talent Association annual convention.

In 1988, he got his first big break as a model in Paul Abdul’s video, ‘Forever Your Girl’. This was soon followed by his debut role in the TV film, ‘Child in the Night’ and a minor role in ‘Back to the Future Part II’.

His first major film role came in 1990 with the film, ‘Avalon’ in which he played the role of Aidan Quinn’s son. The movie received much acclaim and so did he for his amazing performance. The film went on to obtain four Academy Awards nominations.

Avalon’ firmly built his reputation, making him one of the most in-demand child actors. He started receiving various offers such as roles in ‘Internal Affairs’ and ‘Paradise’, in which he played the character of a young boy who reunites an estranged couple. He followed this up with a role in ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Radio Flyer’.

In-born artistic talent and the will to better the skills helped him gain more film offers such as ‘The Adventure of Huck Finn’, which eventually was followed by ‘The Good Son’, ‘The War’ and ‘North’ for which he received the biggest acclaim.

His transition from a child actor to mainstream lead hero was a smooth one -given his versatile talent and powerful rendition of character as an actor. He played nifty roles in various films such as Ang Lee’s ‘The Ice Storm’, Tony Bill’s ‘Oliver Twist’, ‘Deep Impact’, ‘The Faculty’, James Toback’s ‘Black and White’ and ‘Chain of Fools’.

While he was enjoying a successful career as an actor, the breakthrough success came in his way with Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’. Despite performing in a multi-cast film, his performance was greatly noticed and received much acclaim.

He followed this up by appearing in the other two films of the trilogy, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’, each of which were bigger hits than the other.

Meanwhile, while working on the trilogy series, he gave a voice over for the direct-to-video release of ‘The Adventure of Tum Thumb’ and ‘Thumbelina’. Furthermore, he starred in the direct-to-video movie All I Want

Banking on the astronomical success of the trilogy, he continued to put forward impressive performances in a string of films such as ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, ‘Sin City’, ‘Everything Is Illuminated’ and ‘Green Street’. He films garnered much acclaim both critically and commercially.

He followed them up with ‘Bobby’ and ‘Day Zero’. He even gave a voice over for the character of Mumble in the animation film, ‘Happy Feet’ which went on to win an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Animated Feature. He also voiced the lead in the animated feature film version of the short film ‘9’.

Other than films, he made a tryst in the TV with the role of Ryan in the FX series ‘Wilfred’. He even starred in the Beastie Boys’ music video ‘Make Some Noise’, along with Seth Rogen and Danny McBride.

He even ventured forth in the music industry with the launch of how own record label - Simian Records. The first band to record under the label was ‘The Apples in Stereo’ which came up with the album, ‘New Magnetic Wonder’. The other bands signed by the label include ‘Heloise’ and ‘Savoir Faire’.

In addition to giving voice over for films, he has given voice over for video games Spyro the Dragon in the Legend of Spyro game trilogy, Mumble in the game version of Happy Feet

In 2010, together with Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller, he founded ‘The Woodshed’, a production company which promotes horror films. Later in 2013, the company was rebranded as SpectreVision

His forthcoming projects include the film Mumble in the game version of Happy Feet in which he serves as the co-producer and actor.

He is an active humanitarian and works closely with several charities. He supported campaigns for charity such as Keep a Child Alive or ALDO/ Youth AIDS.

In the aftermath of the hardest hit earthquake that disrupted life in Chile in February 2010, he visited the towns and personally met the victims of the tragedy along with Frist Lady of Chile, Ms Cecilia Morel.

Not many know that this versatile actor and producer from Hollywood is a DJ as well and works along with his friend Zach Cowie under the stage name Wooden Wisdom a.k.a. DJ Frodo