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

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.

He also appeared in Shortland Street as White Dragon, in a storyline concluding the three-year Kieran Mitchell story arc.

[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.