Benedict Samuel

Benedict Samuel is an Australian actor, writer, and director best known for playing Jervis Tetch / Mad Hatter in the Fox crime series Gotham and as Owen in The Walking Dead.

Early life and education

Benedict Samuel was born in Adelaide, South Australia. The youngest of three siblings, his brother is actor Xavier Samuel and his sister is a stage manager. He planned to be an actor from an early age and was inspired by his brother's high school theatre performances.

Benedict attended Christian Brothers College in Adelaide, and is a graduate of The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

Career

In theatre, Samuel performed in Sex Wars during his time at NIDA. He also played a part in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne.

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 soap opera Home and Away, for which he appeared for several episodes until his character was killed off.

Samuel made his directorial debut with the short film Sanctuary in 2012.

In 2014, Samuel was cast in Asthma, the directorial debut from Jake Hoffman, alongside Iggy Pop, Rene Ricard, and Krysten Ritter.

In 2015, Samuel played Skeet du Pont in the acclaimed ABC series The Beautiful Lie, and Jacob Harding in the thriller film The Stanford Prison Experiment.

In one of his most recognisable 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 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.

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 and Steve Lewis. The show filmed in 2016 and Samuel plays Felix .

In 2018, Samuel played monstrous character, Lewis, in Australian movie Pimped.