Daniel Gillies

About

Daniel Joshua Gillies (born March 14, 1976) is a New Zealand actor, film producer, director and screenwriter. He played the role of Elijah Mikaelson on The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off, The Originals; Dr. Joel Goran on Saving Hope. He wrote and directed the 2012 film, Broken Kingdom.

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

Gillies began his career starring in several Auckland Theatre Company productions, before landing a two-season lead role in the television drama Street Legal. After deciding…