He performed the lead role of David Gray in the feature film Out of the Blue, based on the events of the Aramoana Massacre.

His other feature film roles include A Song of Good,[4] Christmas,[5] Stringer Woodenhead[6] Existence, and The Devil's Rock.

Sunderland made his directorial and screenwriting debut with the short film Tuffy, which deals with estrangement between a father and son, in small town New Zealand.

In 2013, Sunderland played in the stage adaptation of Kate Grenville’s Booker Prize-shortlisted The Secret River with the Sydney Theatre Company, which toured throughout Australia.

[7] In 2016, Sunderland played the role of a drunken man resisting alien abduction in the music video for "Bergschrund" by DJ Shadow and Nils Frahm.