Benedict Samuel (born 15 April 1988) is an Australian actor, writer, and director best known for playing Jervis Tetch / Mad Hatter in the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

crime series '' Gotham'' and as Owen in '' The Walking Dead''.

Early life

Samuel was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, to Maree and Clifford Samuel. The youngest of three siblings, his brother is actor

Xavier Samuel Xavier Samuel (born 10 December 1983) is an Australian film and theatre actor. He has appeared in leading roles in the feature films '' Adore'', ''September'', ''Further We Search'', ''Newcastle'', '' The Loved Ones'', ''Frankenstein'', ''A Fe ...

and his sister, Bridget Samuel, the eldest, is a stage manager.Gilbertson, Matt (30 July 2011) Benedict attended Christian Brothers College in Adelaide, and is a graduate of The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

Career

Following his education at NIDA, Samuel began writing and directing a number of short films including ''Sanctuary'' which was released in 2012 and starred his brother Xavier Samuel in the leading role. In theatre, he performed in ''Sex Wars'', a production he appeared in during his time at NIDA. He played a part in '' 'Tis Pity She's a Whore'' at the

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. A ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. In 2011, Benedict appeared on several Australian television series including the mini-series '' Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo'' and the children's series '' My Place''. He is known for playing the role of Harman "Hammer" Pirovic on

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

soap opera '' Home and Away'', for which he appeared for several episodes until his character was killed off in a showdown between Hammer,

Charlie Buckton Charlie Buckton is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera ''Home and Away'', played by Esther Anderson. Anderson was added to the cast in a bid to add more "sex appeal" to the show. She said it was her dream job and ...

and Darryl Braxton. Samuel made his directorial debut with the film ''Sanctuary'' in 2012. In 2014, Samuel was cast in ''

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'', the hotly anticipated directorial debut from Jake Hoffman, alongside

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

Rene Ricard Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) was an American poet, actor, art critic, and painter. Life and career Albert Napoleon Ricard was born in Boston and grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts near New Bedford. As a young teenager he ran ...

and

Krysten Ritter Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She came to prominence when she appeared as Jane Margolis in the AMC drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2009–2010) and its spinoff film '' El Camino'' (2019). She th ...

. In 2015, Samuel played Skeet du Pont in the acclaimed ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

'' series '' The Beautiful Lie'' and Jacob Harding in the thriller film ''The Stanford Prison Experiment''. As one of his most recognizable performances, Samuel appeared as Owen, the leader of the Wolves gang, in the American post-apocalyptic zombie series '' The Walking Dead.'' In 2016, Samuel was cast as famous Batman villain

The Mad Hatter The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Car ...

, the main antagonist of the third season of '' Gotham''. He continued to play the character in a recurring capacity during the fourth season, beginning to appear again with the episode "Ace Chemicals" of

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

. Secret City is an Australian political thriller television series based on the best-selling novels ''The Marmalade Files'', ''The Mandarin Code'', and ''The Shadow Game'' by

Chris Uhlmann Christopher Gerald Uhlmann (born 24 June 1960) is an Australian former journalist and television presenter. Career Uhlmann was formerly a seminarian, a security guard, and a journalist with ''The Canberra Times'' before joining the Australian ...

and Steve Lewis. The show filmed in 2016 and Samuel plays Felix . In 2018, Samuel played monstrous character, Lewis in Australian movie ''Pimped''.

Personal life

Samuel enjoys gardening and woodworking hobbies and once built his own dining table. Samuel planned to be an actor from an early age and was inspired by his brother's high school theatre performances. When speaking about his close relationship with his older brother and fellow actor Xavier, Samuel stated ''"I admire my brother so much. He's been a wealth of support and knowledge. Having a best friend to go through this world with, and your career…I feel very fortunate to have that.''"

Filmography

Film

Short film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Benedict Living people Australian screenwriters Australian directors National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni 1988 births 21st-century Australian male actors Australian male soap opera actors