Julian Dennison

Julian Dennison made his movie debut at age 11 in Shopping (2013), as the younger brother of a troubled teen. The performance netted him a New Zealand Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. After acting in Australian movie Paper Planes, Dennison co-starred opposite acting legend Sam Neill in Kiwi blockbuster Hunt for the Wilderpeople, as a 'troubled' child on the run. He'd first worked with director Taika Waititi back in 2013, on a drug driving commercial. Dennison also acts in Godzilla vs. King Kong and the sequels to Deadpool 2 and The Christmas Chronicles. In 2023 film Uproar, he plays a teen finding his voice during the 1981 Springbok tour.

...finally, what makes Wilderpeople memorable is how attached audiences become to the characters, and as played by Dennison and [Sam] Neill, they are two fully realised, full of flaws but nonetheless oh-so loveable human beings. Boyd van Hoeij, in a Hollywood Reporter review of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, 23 January 2016