Ben Browder
Ben Browder is an American actor, writer and director born in Memphis, Tennessee on December 11, 1962, as Robert Benedict Browder.
After a successful college football career with the Furman University Paladins as a Championship-winning Linebacker while starring in theatrical productions and gaining a degree in Psychology, Ben moved to London to study classical acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Ben's acting career started in Charlotte, North Carolina where he was raised. In the late 60s he made TV commercials. In the late 70s he appeared in the children's movie Duncan's World (1978) playing Gates, one of Duncan's best friends.
While at drama school, he says he was highly influenced by Dame Judith Dench, who was a visiting teacher at the school and directed him in several Shakespeare productions. In 1987, he and his future wife, Francesca Buller, were cast in Dustin Hoffman's London West End production of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" (which went on to play on Broadway in New York). He worked as a guest on various TV series, TV pilots and movies before he got his first noted TV series role as Sam Brody in the 3rd season of Party of Five (1994), beginning with episode 9, entitled, "Gimme Shelter".
In 1999, Ben was cast after numerous auditions to play the lead on a science fiction TV series, Farscape (1999) which was filmed in Australia by a collaboration of The Jim Henson Company, Channel 9, Hallmark Company and The Sci-fi Channel. The dramatic and eccentric series where Ben played American astronaut John Crichton unique among a crew of renegade aliens, ran for four seasons on what was then known as the Sci-fi cable channel (until 2002, when it was canceled). After finding financing, "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars" was filmed to complete the Farscape series. During his time as lead actor on Farscape, Ben wrote two scripts for the show: Season 3's "Green-Eyed Monster" and Season 4's "John Quixote."
Ben also starred as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell in the 9th and 10th seasons of Sci-fi Channel's, "Stargate SG-1", after series star and producer Richard Dean Anderson left the show. During his time as lead actor on the show, Ben was given credit for developing the story for Season 10's "Bad Guys."
In 2008, Stargate SG-1 filmed two made-for-TV movies staring the actors from the television show including Ben playing Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell. Ark of Truth dealt with the fall of Adria and Ben played a double-role of his grandfather and Cameron Mitchell in the followup movie, Continuum. From 2012, Ben appeared in guest-starring roles twice on the TV show Arrow, playing Ted Gaynor, on Chuck playing a Thug, and on CSI New Orleans playing a sociopath named Randy Pruitt. He made a huge splash as Sheriff Isaac on the seventh season episode of Doctor Who called, "A Town Called Mercy."
Ben has been nominated for the genre industry's Saturn award five times. He took home the award in 2002 for Best Actor in a Television Series (Farscape) and again in 2005 for Best Actor on Television (Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars).
In 2014, Ben made his directorial debut with "Bad Kids of Crestview Academy," for which he also repeated his role as Max Rainwater, a rather dim janitor. He also acted in two movies, "Dead Still" and "RoboRex." Ben recently played an extreme character named George Tildon in an independent art house western called "Outlaws and Angels" directed and written by JT Mollner which debuted in theaters in January 2016. As of the Fall 2016, he is completing work on a horror film called Hoax that takes place in the wilds of Colorado and is prepping for other projects.
Ben makes a few convention appearances each year. In 2012, that included the US and Australia. In 2013, he was in the US - Chicago Stargate Convention, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
Ben is married to actress Francesca Buller. They met in acting school in London. Ben and Francesca have two children.
