Sam Trammell (born January 29, 1969) is an American actor, best known for his role as Sam Merlotte on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

fantasy drama series ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy Horror fiction, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball (screenwriter), Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels ...

''. He was nominated for the

Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play The Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality supporting roles in a Broadway theatre, Broa ...

for his performance as Richard Miller in '' Ah, Wilderness!''

Early life and education

Trammell was born in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, and was raised in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in West Virginia, most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Kanawha County and ...

. He attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, graduating in 1991.

Career

Trammell has worked in theater, Broadway,

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

, film, and television. His stage credits include a Tony Award-nominated performance in '' Ah, Wilderness!'' at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

. Off-Broadway, he starred in '' Dealer's Choice'', '' My Night with Reg'', ''If Memory Serves'', and ''Ancestral Voices'', as well as in '' Kit Marlowe'' at the

Joseph Papp Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: A ...

. Trammell's big break came when he landed the role of Sam Merlotte on the

series ''

''. In 2013, he played Darrell Mackey in the drama film ''

White Rabbit The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dea ...

''. He played Hazel ( Shailene Woodley)'s father, Michael Lancaster, in the 2014 film ''

The Fault in Our Stars ''The Fault in Our Stars'' is a novel by John Green. It is his fourth solo novel, and sixth novel overall. It was published on January 10, 2012. The title is inspired by Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's play ''Julius Caesar (play), Julius Caesar ...

'', based on the novel of the same name by

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...

. In 2019, Trammell starred in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

horror-

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

series, '' The Order''. He played Vice-president Benjamin Hayes in the final season of ''

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

'' who is signed in as Commander-in-chief after the sitting President is killed.

Personal life

Trammell met actress Missy Yager in 2003 while performing theatre in New York City. The couple's twin sons were born in August 2011. He has been in a relationship with actress Emmanuelle Chriqui since 2020.

Awards

For his work on HBO's ''

'', Trammell was nominated for: *Breakout Performance – Male at the 2009 Scream Awards * Best Supporting Actor at the 2010 Scream Awards."Scream 2009 Breakout Performance - Male"
Retrieved on 2009-09-04. *Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trammell, Sam 1969 births Living people 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors Brown University alumni George Washington High School (Charleston, West Virginia) alumni Male actors from New Orleans Male actors from Charleston, West Virginia Theatre World Award winners University of Paris alumni