Nathaniel Lees is a New Zealand actor and director of Samoan descent whose career has spanned decades of theatre, film, and television. He played the fearsome Uruk-hai commander Uglúk in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, bringing physical menace to one of the trilogy’s key antagonists during the pursuit of Merry and Pippin.
Lees also appeared in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, adding major Hollywood science-fiction credits to a career built substantially around groundbreaking work in New Zealand and Pacific theatre. Earlier in his career, he starred as Chiron the centaur in the television series Young Hercules, filmed in New Zealand alongside a young Ryan Gosling.
Lees is widely regarded as one of the pioneering figures who helped establish and elevate Pacific Islander representation within New Zealand’s theatre and film industry, work recognised alongside his screen career.
His performance as Uglúk remains a memorable part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s depiction of the Uruk-hai’s brutal efficiency, and he continues to be recognised by fans and collectors interested in the trilogy’s extensive New Zealand-based supporting cast.
