American actor and producer (born 1975)

Chaske Spencer (pronounced Chess-Kay; born March 9, 1975) is an American actor and producer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Sam Uley in The Twilight Saga film series (2009–2012), and for his recurring role as Deputy Billy Raven in the Cinemax original series Banshee.

Contents

• 1 Life and career
• 2 Filmography
• 3 Awards and nominations
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Life and career

Spencer was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and grew up in Montana, Kooskia, Lapwai, and Lewiston, Idaho. He has two younger sisters. His heritage includes Lakota, Nez Perce, Cherokee, Creek, French, and Dutch, and is a member of the Fort Peck Tribe. He graduated from Clearwater Valley High School in 1994, where he went by the name James Spencer, and acted as a young teen at the Lewiston Civic Theater. Spencer went to college at Lewis Clark State College for a year, and considered a career in photography. He eventually dropped out of Lewis Clark State College to pursue his acting career.

He did odd jobs and took acting lessons from coaches David Gideon and Ed Kovens. Then he got a role in the 2002 film Skins, which then lead to Dreamkeeper, and Into the West. Spencer had struggles with addiction, and battled alcoholism for much of his teens. He would continue to drink heavily during his college years. He later developed an addiction to cocaine and *, which inspired him to check into rehab. While in rehab, Spencer stopped taking drugs, and almost gave up on acting before his agent called him to audition for New Moon, the sequel to Twilight.

In 2009, Spencer played werewolf Sam Uley in New Moon, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel of the same name. He reprised his role in Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2.

In 2015, Spencer was cast in the recurring role of Billy Raven in Banshee after making his debut one year prior in the web series Banshee Origins.

Spencer will star alongside Emily Blunt in The English for Amazon Prime Video and BBC One.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Chaske Spencer at IMDb
• Chaske Spencer - MIPtalk.com Interview