Sharlto Copley was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Linda Stocks and Bruce Copley, a former university professor. During his childhood, he nurtured a passion for acting, which was, however, put on hold for an extended period as his television production company became one of the few in his native South Africa to be granted licensing to create content for broadcast.
Rather than pursuing his dream of acting in front of the camera, Copley found himself at the helm of his production company, becoming South Africa's youngest television producer at the age of 25. It was during this time that he met a then-teen-aged Neill Blomkamp, who worked at Copley's company in exchange for the use of computers to pursue his talent for design.
Blomkamp would go on to direct Copley in his star-making debut as nervous bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe in the Oscar-nominated science fiction hit District 9 (2009). Copley's subsequent role as H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock in the big-screen adaptation of the 1980's TV hit The A-Team (2010) marked the fulfillment of another childhood dream.
He was once again directed by Blomkamp in the movie Elysium (2013). Copley now divides his time between his native South Africa and Hollywood, pursuing more opportunities in front of and behind the camera.
