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BRYAN KONIETZKO (Series Creator / Executive Producer) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and musician. He graduated with honors from the illustration department of the Rhode Island School of Design. His friend and fellow RISD alum, Michael Dante DiMartino, helped him get his foot in the door in the TV animation industry. Konietzko worked alongside DiMartino at Film Roman Studios on the series “Family Guy,” “Mission Hill” and “King of the Hill.” In 2000 he joined Nickelodeon to work on the series “Invader Zim” as a storyboard artist. He became the art director on the second season of the show and spent time in South Korea training the overseas animation crews.
After “Zim,” Bryan was recruited by Nickelodeon’s head of development to create an original series. He once again teamed with his friend Michael DiMartino, and together they created “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” pitching the idea a mere two weeks after its conception. On top of sharing executive producer duties with Michael, Bryan worked as the art director of the award-winning series, designing the main characters and drawing from his experience as a landscape painter for their fantasy world’s epic scope. During the six-year production of “Avatar,” Bryan released three albums of instrumental electronic music under the recording name Ginormous. His fourth album, the score for a contemporary dance piece by Los Angeles’ Oni Dance, was released in the spring of 2010. Bryan is an avid landscape photographer, displaying his photos of Canada, Iceland, France and Japan on bryankonietzko.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his fiancée, Lisa, and his dog, Gunther.

“The Last Airbender” is SAM MERCER’s (Producer) seventh collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan, having previously worked together on “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “The Village,” “Lady in the Water” and The Happening. Other recent producing credits for Mercer include Sam Mendes’ “Jarhead,” Stephen Sommers’ “Van Helsing” and Susanne Bier’s “Things We Lost in the Fire,” starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro.
Mercer planted his roots in the film business as a freelance location and unit production manager on such films as “The Witches of Eastwick,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Stripes,” “Swing Shift” and “The Escape Artist.” He also served as the associate producer/unit manager for PBS’ affiliate KCET-TV in Los Angeles, where he received a Daytime Emmy® for the live presentation of the San Francisco Opera’s production of “La Gioconda.”
He then joined the Walt Disney Company as a production executive, supervising such films as “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Three Fugitives” and “Dead Poets Society.” Within a few years Mercer was upped to vice president of motion picture production for Hollywood Pictures, and responsible for such releases as “Quiz Show,” “The Joy Luck Club,” “Born Yesterday,” “Swing Kids,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “Arachnophobia.”
Mercer’s first venture into independent producing was the box office hit “Congo” (directed by Frank Marshall), that he produced alongside Kathleen Kennedy, with whom he again collaborates on “The Last Airbender.” His other credits include Peter Hyams’ “The Relic,” which he produced with Gale Anne Hurd. He was also the executive producer of Brian De Palma’s “Mission to Mars.”
Mercer is a graduate of The Groton School and Occidental College. He currently resides in Venice, California.

SHAUN TOUB (Uncle Iroh) was recently seen starring opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the Paramount Pictures/Marvel Entertainment box office smash “Iron Man,” directed by Jon Favreau, playing the trusted friend and scientist YinSen, who saves Tony Stark’s life.
Toub has had a multi-faceted career. His gripping performance as Farhad in Paul Haggis’ Oscar®-winning film “Crash” earned him a SAG Ensemble Cast Award, Satellite Award – Ensemble Cast Award, Critics Choice Award, Hollywood Film Festival Ensemble Acting of the Year Award, Artistic Freedom Award and Vision Award. More recently, he dazzled audiences playing Rahim Khan in “The Kite Runner,” directed by Marc Forster, which was a Golden Globe® Best Picture nominee, as well as Joaquim, opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes, in the critically acclaimed film, “The Nativity Story.”
Known as a versatile actor, Toub has worked side-by-side with accomplished actors, including Tom Hanks in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” Sandra Bullock in “Crash” and John Travolta in “Broken Arrow.” As a comedic performer, he shined in Michael Bay’s “Bad Boys” with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
His other acting credits include “Executive Decision,” “Maryam” and “Hot Shots 2.” Additionally, Toub has made his mark on HBO as well, in both Mick Jackson’s “Live from Baghdad,” starring Michael Keaton and Helena Bonham Carter, and in the controversial “Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing,” opposite Marcia Gay Harden. He appears often in television miniseries, most recently in the ABC Emmy®-nominated “The Path to 9/11.” He has received accolades for several of his appearances in more than 100 television episodes, including “Seinfeld,” “The Sopranos,” “ER,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Nash Bridges,” “JAG” and ”Married with Children.”
The actor’s diverse career has spanned 20 years of remarkable performances. Toub was raised in Manchester, England. At the age of 14, he moved to Switzerland and after a two-year stay, he crossed the Atlantic to Nashua, New Hampshire, to finish his last year of high school. After completing his education at USC, he broke into the Hollywood scene with a memorable role on the much loved television series, “Hunter.”
Toub is very proud of his Persian heritage and is active in the community. Through various charity events and public speaking engagements, he inspires the community to embrace the arts, as the arts enhance everyday life.

AASIF MANDVI (Commander Zhao) is the recipient of the 1999 OBIE award for his critically acclaimed one-man show “Sakina’s Restaurant.” Some of his additional New York stage credits include the 2002 Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!,” “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,” “Homebody/Kabul,” “subUrbia,” “Trudy Blue” and “Speak Truth to Power.”
Mandvi’s considerable list of film and television credits includes: the worldwide hit “The Proposal,” starring alongside Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds; the DreamWorks comedy, “Ghost Town,” with Ricky Gervais; “The Understudy”; “Music and Lyrics,” with Hugh Grant; the hit sequel “Spider-Man 2”; “Freedomland”; “The Siege”; “Analyze This”; the HBO series “Sex and the City”; “Sleeper Cell”; “The Sopranos”; “The Bedford Diaries”; “Oz”; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”; multiple guest-starring roles on all four “Law & Order” series; and “Tanner on Tanner,” directed by Robert Altman. Aasif was also seen in recurring roles on the series “Jericho” and “ER.” Mandvi co-wrote and starred in the feature film comedy “Today’s Special.” He continues his stint as a favorite correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
Upcoming for Mandvi are the Focus Feature motion-picture adaptation of the popular novel “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” and an “Untitled Comedy” comprised of a collection of short films starring such performers as Naomi Watts, Gerard Butler, Sam Rockwell, Anna Faris, Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman.

CLIFF CURTIS (Fire Lord Ozai) is one of New Zealand’s most successful acting talents, having worked with such acclaimed directors as Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David O. Russell, Danny Boyle, Frank Darabont, Jane Campion, Antoine Fuqua, Darren Aronofsky, Wayne Kramer, Roland Emmerich and Niki Caro.
Curtis is perhaps most recognizable from his role opposite Academy Award®-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes in “Whale Rider,” and his leading series regular role in the hit NBC series “Trauma.” Among his credits are roles in such diverse projects as the Weinstein Company’s “Crossing Over,” opposite Harrison Ford and Sean Penn; Warner Bros. Pictures’ “10,000 B.C.”; “Live Free or Die Hard,” opposite Bruce Willis; the Academy Award®-winning “Training Day,” with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke; Oscar® winner “The Insider,” with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe; and his first film, the Academy Award®-winning “The Piano,” with Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin and Harvey Keitel.
Among Curtis’ other films are “Blow,” with Johnny Depp, directed by Ted Demme; “Three Kings,” directed by David O. Russell, with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube; “Runaway Jury,” with John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman; “Bringing out the Dead,” directed by Martin Scorsese with Nicolas Cage; “Virus,” with Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland; Ivan Reitman’s “Six Days Seven Nights,” with Harrison Ford; “River Queen,” with Samantha Morton and Kiefer Sutherland; “The Fountain,” directed by Darren Aronofsky with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz; “Sunshine,” directed by Danny Boyle with Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans; “Fracture,” directed by Gregory Hoblit with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling; and “PUSH,” opposite Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans.
Curtis received a New Zealand Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in “Desperate Remedies” the same year that he received a New Zealand Film Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in “Once Were Warriors,” directed by Lee Tamahori. He also starred in South Pacific Pictures’ feature film “Jubilee,” which earned him an additional Best Actor Award. His performance in “Overnight” also garnered him a New Zealand Television Award nomination for Best Actor. His U.S. television work includes director Stephen Hopkins’ Emmy®-nominated USA Network miniseries “Traffic.”
In addition to his many film credits, Curtis has worked extensively in New Zealand theater. Curtis trained at the New Zealand Drama School before attending the prestigious Teatro Dmitri Scoula in Switzerland. His stage credits include “Macbeth,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Happy End,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Man of La Mancha” and “Porgy and Bess.”
More recently, Cliff has also wrapped principal photography on DreamWorks’ “A Thousand Words,” starring opposite Eddie Murphy and directed by Brian Robbins.

DANIEL OLBRYCHSKI (Orlov) is respected in his native Poland for his long association with Andrzej Wajda, having made 13 films with the Academy Award®-winning director, including The Promised Land and Young Girls of Wilko (both Oscar® nominees for Best Foreign Language Film) as well as Ashes, The Birch Wood (for which Olbrychski was honored with the Best Actor award at the Moscow International Film Festival), Everything for Sale, Landscape after Battle, Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania, and The Revenge, among others. He also has collaborated several times with director Jerzy Hoffman, including on The Deluge, which won three awards at the Polish Film Festival, including Best Actor for Olbrychski, and was nominated for an Oscar®.

In his 186-film career, he has worked with such directors as Volker Schlöndorff (in The Tin Drum), Philip Kaufman (in The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Michael Anderson (in The Jeweler’s Shop), Krzysztof Kieślowski (one of the films of The Decalogue), and Miklos Jancso, Claude Lelouch, Joseph Losey, Mauro Bolognioni, Margarette Von Trotta, and Nikita Michalkov.

Olbrychski is also a trained Shakespearean actor; he played Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear. In 1985, he was Rhett Butler in an adaptation of “Gone with the Wind” at the Marigny Theatre in Paris.

He has received the French Legion of Honor, Poland’s Order of Polonia Restituta and Gloria Artis, and Russia’s Pushkin Prize.

Just two years after NOAH RINGER (Aang) began studying Taekwondo at the age of 10, he earned his coveted 1st Degree Black Belt in the American Taekwondo Association (ATA). Noah currently holds the title of Texas State Champion in his age group in four different categories: Traditional Forms, Traditional Weapons, ATA-Extreme Forms, and ATA-Extreme Weapons. Noah produces his own ATA-Extreme routines, choreographing his moves, and choosing his own music.
At the urging of his Taekwondo instructor, Eric Pechacek of the Carrollton ATA Black Belt Academy, Noah answered the casting call by putting together an audition DVD for “The Last Airbender” filmmakers and mailed it to Paramount. Though he had never acted before, Noah’s natural talent for martial arts and charming personality landed him the leading role of Aang. Fortunately, Noah is no stranger to performing, as he has competed in more than 23 Taekwondo tournaments across the United States. In February 2008, Noah was awarded “The Competitor of the Year” award by the ATA in the Texas region, confirming even more his commitment to excellence in his craft.
Noah had never seen the animated Nickelodeon television series, “Avatar,” until his Taekwondo instructor lent him the first season on DVD. Noah and his mom got hooked on the series, and one by one, borrowed and watched each DVD of the entire trilogy. When Noah was cast, his instructor bought Noah a present, his own complete set of all the “Avatar” seasons, to take with him on location in Philadelphia and Greenland.
Besides his love for martial arts and teaching Taekwondo, Noah also enjoys tennis, ping-pong, golf, basketball and snow skiing. In his free time, Noah likes to have fun with his friends, and is an avid reader. Thirteen-year-old Noah was born and raised in Dallas, Texas where he currently lives with his parents, two Australian Shepherds, and two pet rats.
Up next for Ringer is a role in the sci-fi action western “Cowboys & Aliens.”

DEV PATEL (Prince Zuko) delighted audiences as the underdog leading man, Jamal, in the runaway hit “Slumdog Millionaire,” which won eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture. “Slumdog Millionaire” was only Patel’s second acting role—British audiences know him from the Channel 4 cult series “Skins,” where he was selected from an open casting call of hundreds to play the role of Anwar.
In addition to his acting talents, Dev is a Black Belt in Taekwondo, and was bronze medalist in the 2004 World Championships.
Dev makes his home in London, England.

NICOLA PELTZ’s (Katara) strong acting skills—as well as her natural talent for sports—landed her in M. Night Shyamalan’s ninth film, “The Last Airbender.” Peltz’s experience having played for a female regional hockey team, combined with her love for extreme sports, made her the perfect choice for the intensive martial arts role of the Waterbender Katara.
Nicola made her feature film debut in “Deck the Halls,” with Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick.
A New York native, Nicola starred onstage opposite Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill in the Olivier Award-winning production of “Blackbird” at the Manhattan Theater Club—the play was directed by multi-Tony winner Joe Mantello (“Wicked,” “Assassins”).

JACKSON RATHBONE (Sokka) was born in Singapore and, because of his father’s job, was lucky enough to be able to live in various countries around the world. Growing up, he lived such places as Medan and Jakarta (Indonesia), London, Connecticut, California, Norway, and Texas, where the family finally settled. Rathbone immediately joined the local community theater and was accepted into the young actors program, The Pickwick Players. In addition to acting, he was very involved in many extracurricular activities, including basketball, track, soccer, baseball and, the pastime of Texas, football. He even started a band and a mobile DJ business (after acting, music is Jackson’s next passion). After trying to juggle so many activities, Jackson decided to stick with what made him the happiest, acting and music.
Rathbone moved to northwest Michigan to attend the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy as a high school theater major. He grew to appreciate classical theater and flourished in Shakespearean plays. The summer between his junior and senior year, he performed in the Southwest Shakespeare Festival as Ferdinand in “The Tempest.”
Upon graduation from Interlochen, with plans to attend the Royal Scottish Academy as a theater major in the fall, he decided to give Los Angeles and the film industry a try for the summer and signed with manager Patch Mackenzie at Cutler Management, who sent him to study film acting with Jeremiah Comey. In short order, he landed a recurring role on “Disney 411,” interviewing Disney Channel stars, and signed with the Paradigm talent agency.
Opting for a career in film, Jackson decided to stay in L.A. rather than attend the Royal Scottish Academy. He quickly booked several television commercials, along with substantial roles in TV, the Hallmark telefilm “Close to Home” and the series “The O.C.” and “The War at Home” among them. Feature film work followed, in the independent films “Molding Clay” and “Pray for Morning.” He next landed a series regular role in the ABC Family series “Beautiful People”—he was able to keep up his musical pursuits via the internet while filming in Toronto.
Rathbone was chosen by Girls’ Life magazine as “The Hottie” of the month, and was featured in Popstar and ELLEgirl. Usually cast as a leading man, Jackson also enjoys the challenge of character parts, which he had in the features “Big Stan” and “Senior Skip Day.”
After having completed the role of Jasper Hale in the runaway hit features “Twilight” and “New Moon,” along with the lead in the horror film “Dread,” he appeared in guest-starring roles in the series “The Cleaner” and “Criminal Minds.” He most recently appeared in the third “Twilight” installment, “Eclipse,” again reprising the role of Jasper. He will next appear in the drama “Truckstop.”
Jackson has also started a production company with his manager, PatchMo Entertainment, and their first release is entitled “Girlfriend.”
In his off-time from acting, Jackson writes music. He’s performed at The Gardenia in Hollywood and with his band, 100 Monkeys, at clubs like The Mint and The Viper Room around Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver and all over the country. Jackson shares an apartment in L.A. with fellow actor, band member and former Interlochen classmate, Ben Graupner

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR (William Peabody) continues to demonstrate his versatility as an actor with a wide range of projects. Last year he starred in “Endgame,” Channel 4’s moving drama set in South Africa, for which his performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries. He also starred in Roland Emmerich’s action feature 2012 opposite John Cusack, Danny Glover, and Thandie Newton.

Born in Forrest Gate to Nigerian parents, Chiwetel attended Dulwich College in South-East London. By the age of 13, he was appearing in numerous school and National Youth Theatre productions, and subsequently attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

In 1996, Ejiofor caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who cast him in the critically acclaimed Amistad alongside Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. He has since been seen on the big screen in numerous features, including Stephen Frears’ 2002 thriller Dirty Pretty Things, for which his performance as Okwe won him Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards, the Evening Standard Film Awards, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards. Ejiofor went on to star in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually in 2003, Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda in 2004, and Slow Burn the following year. 2007 saw Ejiofor in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster opposite Don Cheadle and the same year he took the role of Dewey Hughes in Talk to Me, for which his performance won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2008, Ejiofor starred in David Mamet’s Redbelt. His other film credits include Kinky Boots’(2005), in which he played the loveable drag queen Lola, the urban drama Four Brothers (2005) alongside Mark Wahlberg, Spike Lee’s heist film Inside Man (2006) alongside Clive Owen, Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington, and the Oscar®-nominated Children of Men (2006).

Keen to stay true to his theatre training, Ejiofor has balanced his film and television commitments with a number of prestigious stage productions. In 2008 his performance in the title role of Michael Grandage’s “Othello” at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Ewan McGregor was unanimously commended, and won him ‘best actor’ at the 2008 Olivier and Evening Standard Theatre Awards. He also received nominations in the South Bank Show Awards and the What’s On Stage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards in 2009. His other stage parts include Roger Michell’s “Blue/Orange” in 2000 which received an Olivier Award for Best Play, and the same year Tim Supple’s “Romeo and Juliet” in which Ejiofor took the title role.

Following his television debut in 1996 in “Deadly Voyage,” Ejiofor has complimented his film and theatre work on the small screen in productions including “Murder in Mind,” created by the award-winning writer Anthony Horowitz, “Trust” (2003), “Twelfth Night, or What you Will” (2003), and “The Canterbury Tales – The Knight’s Tale” (2003). His television appearance in 2006’s hard hitting emotional drama “Tsunami: The Aftermath” alongside Toni Collette, Sophie Okonedo and Tim Roth earned him a nomination for a Golden Globe Award as well as an NAACP Image award.

In addition to his acting career, Chiwetel has also written and directed the short film Slapper, which was screened at the 2008 Edinburgh Film Festival.