Elijah Wood Life Story

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Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor. Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the middle of three children born to Warren and Debbie Wood; he has English, Irish, German and Polish ancestry and was raised a Catholic.

He was nicknamed Elijah “Spark Plug” because he was a maniacally energetic child. He has a brother, Zack, a video game producer and seven years his senior, as well as sister, Hannah, younger by three years who is a poet and actress and has had small roles in a number of his films.

A professional actor since the age of nine, Wood is best known for the role of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He took the stage in his elementary school’s rendition of the play The Sound of Music. The following year, he graduated to the title character of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wood also served as choir boy during the production of See How They Run, produced by the Marion Creative Council.

Making his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future II in 1989, Wood landed a succession of subsequent larger roles and became a critically acclaimed child actor. His performance in The War gained him a nomination by the YoungStar Awards (for which he was nominated five times and won once), and Roger Ebert said in his review of the film that “Elijah Wood has emerged, I believe, as the most talented actor in his age group in Hollywood history.”

His role as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings made him a star, but he has thus far resisted typecasting by recently choosing less sympathetic roles, such as a stalker in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a mute cannibal in Sin City.

In 2005 Wood started his own record label called Simian Records. On September 19, 2006 Wood announced that Simian had signed The Apples in Stereo as their first band, with their new album New Magnetic Wonder released in February 2007. In addition he also directed the music video for “Energy”. The other band signed to Simian thus far is Heloise and the Savoir Faire.

Wood has also provided voiceovers for videogames, providing the current voice for Spyro the Dragon since 2006′s The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, as well as reprising Mumble in the game version of Happy Feet. He also contributed his talents to fellow Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen’s album Pandemoniumfromamerica, singing and playing various instruments on the album.

Wood has signed to co-produce the film Black Wings Has My Angel, based on the noir novel of the same name, with Anthony Moody and Rob Malkani of Indalo Productions. On April 11, 2008, Elijah was the guest host of Channel 4′s Friday Night Project.

On April 25, 2009, Elijah was honored with The Midnight Award (San Francisco International Film Festival) as a dynamic young American actor who has made outstanding contributions to independent and Hollywood cinema, and who brings striking intelligence, exemplary talent and extraordinary depth of character to his roles. Elijah Wood also starred in an episode of Yo! Gabba Gabba entitled “Eat” where he danced and “went crazy” alongside the rest of the Yo! Gabba Gabba crew.