Australian film and theater actor

Xavier Samuel (born 10 December 1983) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in leading roles in the feature films Adore, September, Further We Search, Newcastle, The Loved Ones, Frankenstein, A Few Best Men, and played Riley Biers in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and Billy in Spin Out.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Acting work
  • 4.1 Theatre
  • 4.2 Filmography
• 5 Awards and nominations
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life and education

Samuel was born in Hamilton, Victoria, the son of Maree and Clifford Samuel. He grew up in Adelaide, South Australia and graduated from Rostrevor College in 2001 where he boarded. His family spent a year in Darwin when Samuel was 13 due to his parents' teaching jobs.

He has a younger brother, Benedict, a writer, producer and actor, as well as an older sister, Bridget, a stage manager.

Despite completing his senior secondary years at Rostrevor College, Samuel undertook final year drama at Christian Brothers College, where he played the part of Tom Snout (the wall) in Rostrevor College's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as playing Belvile in CBC's production of Aphra Behn's The Rover (The Banished Cavaliers).

Samuel later attended Flinders University Drama Centre and graduated in 2006.

Career

Samuel made his debut on the Australian TV show McLeod's Daughters in 2003. He starred in the Australian horror movie Road Train as Marcus, and also acted in the Australian movie Drowning with Elephant Princess star Miles Szanto, directed by Craig Boreham.

Alongside Mia Wasikowska, Samuel was in 2007 the Australian film September, set in 1968 where two young boys who share a p*ion for boxing are friends.

In 2009, Samuel was cast as Brent in the Australian horror/thriller movie The Loved Ones in the lead role opposite Robin McLeavy.

In early 2010, Samuel was cast as Riley Biers in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The film gave Samuel his first blockbuster film worldwide. Samuel received his first award nomination and win at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. In an interview with GQ Australia in November 2010, Samuel described the process of his shock Twilight casting. "I sent off the audition tape from Sydney, which landed in a big pile on someone's desk. So then to actually hear something back was kind of unusual. I guess I was a bit of a gamble, but it's bizarre and wonderful."

Samuel appeared in the 2011 film Anonymous.

In 2012 Samuel played a lead role in A Few Best Men with other notable stars, Rebel Wilson and Olivia Newton John. The film is about a wedding.

Eventually forming a relationship with co-star Phoebe Tonkin, Samuel was cast in 3D feature Bait, released in September 2012.

In 2013 he played Ian in Adore/Adoration beside Robin Wright and Naomi Watts, which is based on Doris Lessing's book and directed by Anne Fontaine. The film is about two middle-aged mothers who become the lovers of each other's sons. Anne Fontaine coaxed Samuel through rehearsals of the love scenes in a hotel room using a paid actress who stood in for Wright. The film was shot in Seal Rocks in New South Wales and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival under its original name of Two Mothers.

Alongside Hugo Weaving and an owl, Samuel was cast in the movie Healing in 2014. The film is about a prison program where the inmates rehabilitate birds. When speaking about Doris the owl, Samuel stated that he grew rather fond of her as she was easy to play with and was a real diva.

Xavier Samuel at the Twilight: Eclipse premier in London in 2010

In 2014, Samuel was cast alongside Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf in the $80 million blockbuster Fury, about a group of Americans in National Socialist German Workers' Party Germany at the end of World War II.

In 2016, Samuel played the *ular character in The Death and Life of Otto Bloom, with Rachel Ward and her daughter, Matilda Brown. In the same year, Samuel performed alongside Stephen Fry, Chloe Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale and James Fleet in the film Love and Friendship, adapted from Jane Austin novel Lady Susan.

Starring alongside Hugo Weaving yet again, Samuel played the role of Simon Heywood in the Australian TV series, Seven Types of Ambiguity in 2017. The series was based on Seven Types of Ambiguity, a 2003 novel by Australian writer Elliot Perlman.

Samuel played Kit Parker in the Amazon thriller series, Tell Me Your Secrets in 2021.

Personal life

As a child, Samuel wanted to be an Australian rules football star like his hero Tony Modra, and is a supporter of the Adelaide Football Club.

Samuel regularly moves between America and Australia to take on roles.

From 2010 to 2011 Samuel dated German model Shermine Shahrivar, then in 2012, Samuel dated his co-star from Bait 3D, Phoebe Tonkin. From 2012 to 2015, Samuel dated Plush co-star Emily Browning. Model, Jessica Gomes, was in a relationship for two years with Samuel that started in 2016. In 2018, Samuel and actress Marianna Palka started dating.

Acting work

Theatre

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Xavier Samuel at IMDb

• Adam Sandler vs. Bob Barker – Happy Gilmore (1996)
• Fairuza Balk vs. Robin Tunney – The Craft (1997)
• Will Smith vs. *roach – Men in Black (1998)
• Ben Stiller vs. Puffy the Dog – There's Something About Mary (1999)
• Keanu Reeves vs. Laurence Fishburne – The Matrix (2000)
• Zhang Ziyi vs. Entire bar – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
• Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker vs. Hong Kong gang – Rush Hour 2 (2002)
• Yoda vs. Christopher Lee – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2003)
• Uma Thurman vs. Chiaki Kuriyama – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2004)
• Uma Thurman vs. Daryl Hannah – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2005)
• Angelina Jolie vs. Brad Pitt – Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2006)
• Gerard Butler vs. Robert Maillet – 300 (2007)
• Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet – Never Back Down (2008)
• Robert Pattinson vs. Cam Gigandet – Twilight (2009)
• Beyoncé Knowles vs. Ali Larter – Obsessed (2010)
• Robert Pattinson vs. Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2011)
• Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson vs. Alexander Ludwig – The Hunger Games (2012)
• Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddleston – The Avengers (2013)
• Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly vs. Orcs – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2014)
• Dylan O'Brien vs. Will Poulter – The Maze Runner (2015)
• Ryan Reynolds vs. Ed Skrein – Deadpool (2016)
• Gal Gadot vs. German soldiers – Wonder Woman (2018)
• Brie Larson vs. Gemma Chan – Captain Marvel (2019)
• No Award (2020)
• Elizabeth Olsen vs. Kathryn Hahn – WandaVision (2021)