Tahmoh Penikett

Tahmoh Penikett
Penikett at Phoenix Comicon in 2016
Born	(1975-05-20) May 20, 1975 (age 49) Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1996–present

Tahmoh Penikett ([ˈtaʔmo]; /ˈpɛnɪkɪt/;^[1] born May 20, 1975) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing Karl "Helo" Agathon on SyFy's 2004 television series Battlestar Galactica.^[2] He has appeared in TV series Supernatural, Dollhouse,^[3] the Showcase time travel show Continuum, and as the antagonist Darius in the 2006 racing video game Need for Speed: Carbon.

Penikett was born in Whitehorse, Yukon. He is the son of former Yukon premier Tony Penikett, who moved to Victoria, British Columbia from England at age 12, and Lulla Sierra Johns, of the White River First Nation in the Yukon. He has two siblings, twin sisters Sarah and Stephanie.^[4][5] He graduated from the Victoria Motion Picture School and studied at the Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver.^[6]

In 2002, he made a brief appearance as one of the first Human-Form Replicators in the season 6 episode of Stargate SG-1, "Unnatural Selection".^[7] From 2004 to 2005, Penikett portrayed Ray Chase, who appeared in eleven episodes of the Canadian police drama Cold Squad.^[8] He played a lead role as Noah Hamilton in the 2005 made-for-TV film Hush alongside actress Tori Spelling. He had a role in the video game Need for Speed: Carbon as a street racer named Darius.^[9] He also appeared in four episodes of the television series Whistler as Elias Noth.^[10] Penikett provided the voice for antagonist Troy Hammerschmidt in the Adult Swim show Titan Maximum.^[11] In 2010, Penikett played the lead role of Matt Ellman on Syfy's miniseries Riverworld, an adaptation of the science-fiction books written by Philip José Farmer of the same name.^[12][13][14] He starred in the first two episodes of Warner Bros' Mortal Kombat: Legacy as Kurtis Stryker, which debuted in April on YouTube; he was replaced by Eric Jacobus for season 2.

Among his early acting work were stints on assorted Canadian TV series such as Cold Squad. He also appeared on the TV show Smallville -- in the Season 3 episode "Resurrection" as Vince Davis and in the Season 6 episodes, "Nemesis" and "Prototype", as Sgt. Wes Keenan.^[15] He portrayed a police officer for a predominantly gay neighbourhood in the 2004 The L Word episode "Losing It",^[6] which also starred Battlestar Galactica co-star Nicki Clyne in a related storyline.

In 2003, the 1978 science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica was "reimagined" as a three-hour miniseries on the SciFi Channel. The production was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Penikett, a local actor, auditioned and was cast in the part of Karl "Helo" Agathon, an officer in the Colonial Fleet. The miniseries proved highly successful, and a full Battlestar Galactica series was commissioned.^[16] The role was not based on a character in the original show and was meant to be confined to the miniseries only -- Helo is shown giving up a spot on a spaceship fleeing the doomed planet of Caprica, with the implication that he was left to die. However, both the producers and test audiences were sufficiently impressed with the character, and Penikett's performance, that the decision was made to make Helo recur on the show.^[17] A plot that took place over much of Battlestar Galactica's first season was that the Cylons on Caprica kept Helo alive in order to have him fall in love with, and impregnate, a Cylon. (Helo was chosen because his crew partner, Sharon Valerii, was in fact a Cylon, and another copy of the same model was sent to pretend to be her. By the second season, Helo had returned to the Galactica, and as the father of the only successful human-Cylon hybrid, this character and his family became central to the show's mythology.

In 2009, Penikett was cast as Paul Ballard in Joss Whedon's science-fiction drama television series Dollhouse, which aired on the Fox network Friday nights at 9:00.^[18][19]

Dollhouse was canceled at the end of its second season, and the series finale aired on Friday, January 29, 2010.^[20] In 2012, Penikett guest-starred as a politician named Jim Martin in the first season of Showcase's Continuum. He returned as a recurring character for the show's second season.^[21] In 2013, Penikett was cast in the CW TV series Supernatural, appearing in the ninth season premiere as a fallen angel who claims to be Ezekiel.^[22] The character's actual name was revealed as Gadreel in episode nine, and Penikett reprised the role in episodes 10, 18, 21, and 22. He also landed a recurring role on the mid-season drama Star-Crossed, which premiered in February 2014.^[23]

In 2014, Penikett guest-starred in the 200th episode of Criminal Minds as Michael Hastings, an ex-CIA agent and leader of the terrorist group, The Regime Squad.^[24] Since 2014, he has also starred in the award-winning web series Riftworld Chronicles.

In 2024, Penikett portrayed Ed Finley in the Lifetime film The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.^[25]

Penikett lives in Vancouver with his family.^[26]

In his youth, Penikett studied Judo before switching to Muay Thai^[27]

In April 2008, in support of the Babz Chula Lifeline for Artists Society, which raised money for their (late) friend and fellow Canadian actor Chula's cancer treatment, Penikett and his Battlestar Galactica colleague Kandyse McClure auctioned off dinner with the two of them in Vancouver.^[28]

• Media related to Tahmoh Penikett at Wikimedia Commons
• Tahmoh Penikett at IMDb