Early life

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. He graduated from the Victoria Motion Picture School and studied at the Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver.

Career

In 2002, he had a brief appearance as one of the first Human-Form Replicators in the season 6 episode of Stargate SG-1, "Unnatural Selection". From 2004-2005, Penikett portrayed Ray Chase, who appeared in eleven episodes of the Canadian police drama, Cold Squad. He played a leading 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. He also appeared in four episodes of the television series Whistler as Elias Noth. Penikett also provided voice talent for antagonist Troy Hammerschmidt on the Adult Swim show Titan Maximum. In 2010, Penikett played the lead role of Matt Ellman on Syfy's miniseries Riverworld an adaption of the science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer of the same name. He starred in the first two episodes of Warner Brothers' 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 episode "Resurrection" in Season 3 as Vince Davis, and in the Season 6 episodes "Nemesis" and "Prototype" as Sgt. Wes Keenan. He portrayed a police officer for a predominantly gay neighborhood in the 2004 The L Word episode "Losing It", which 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 miniseries was filmed in Vancouver, 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 Battlestar Galactica series was commissioned.

The role was not based on a character in the original series, and was meant to be confined only to the miniseries; in the miniseries 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 a recurring character on the show. A plot that took place over much of the show'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, his character had returned to the Galactica; 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 Fox network Friday nights at 9:00. During the first season, Ballard was the purported "good guy" cop who was trying to bring the Dollhouse down; however, an unhealthy fixation on Echo (the main character, portrayed by Eliza Dushku), as well as other factors, led to his expulsion from the FBI. In an attempt to both save Echo and himself, and in exchange for releasing former lover November (Miracle Laurie), Ballard joined the Dollhouse as Echo's handler during the second season, and worked insidiously from the inside in an attempt to set the dolls free from what he perceives as slavery and to bring down not just the Dollhouse but the power-hungry Rossum Corporation behind it.

During the post-apocalyptic future world shown in the "Epitaph" episodes ("Epitaph One" from season one and "Epitaph Two: Return" from season two), Ballard is displayed as having joined Echo as a freedom fighter working to restore order to the world and build a place referred to by the other free characters as "Safe Haven". He is killed without warning by a stray bullet in "Epitaph Two", though his personality is uploaded into Echo by the end of the episode.

Dollhouse was canceled at the end of its second season, and the series finale aired on Friday, January 29, 2010.

In 2012, he guest-starred as a politician named Jim Martin in the first season of Showcase's Continuum. He returned as a recurring character in the second season of the show.

In 2013, Penikett was cast on the CW TV series Supernatural as a fallen angel who claimed to be Ezekiel, appearing in the show's ninth season premiere. The character's real name was revealed as Gadreel in episode nine and Penikett reprised the role in episode ten. He has since reprised the roles in episodes eighteen, twenty-one and twenty-two. He also landed another recurring role on the mid-season drama Star-Crossed, which premiered in February, 2014.

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.

Personal life

Penikett currently lives in Vancouver with his family.

In support of the Babz Chula Lifeline for Artists Society, which is raising money for their friend and fellow Canadian actor Chula's cancer treatment, Penikett and his Battlestar Galactica colleague Kandyse McClure auctioned off the opportunity to have dinner with both of them in Vancouver in April 2008.

He trains in muay thai and has showcased his ability in various roles, including in Battlestar Galactica and most notably as Agent Ballard in the fight sequences in Dollhouse, where he choreographed most of his own moves.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Go-Go Boy (Prelude)	Aaron Fitz (Go-Go Boy)	Short film
2005	Sandra Goes to Whistler	Conrad	Short film
2006	Stanley's Girlfriend	Stanley	Short film
2006	Trapped Ashes	Young Leo	Segment: "Stanley's Girlfriend"
2007	The Green Chain	Brett Hall
2007	Taming Tammy	Wilson
2007	Trick 'r Treat	Henry
2010	The Hostage	The Figure	Short film Also executive producer
2012	Big Time Movie	Agent A
2013	Man of Steel	Jed Eubanks
2013	Down River	Chris
2014	The Portal	Alar	Short film
2015	Justice League: Gods and Monsters	Steve Trevor	Direct-to-video
2016	Pure Pwnage	Charles McBean

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Murder on the Iditarod Trail	n/a	TV movie
2002	Glory Days	Eric Forester	Episode: "No Guts, No Glory"
2002	Dark Angel	ND Cop	Episode: "Freak Nation"
2002	Wildfire 7: The Inferno	Sheriff	TV movie
2002	Stargate SG-1	Third	Episode: "Unnatural Selection"
2003	Under the Cover	Jonas	TV movie
2003	Just Cause	Principal Joe Decker	Episode: "Blackboard Jungle"
2003	Battlestar Galactica (miniseries)	Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon	Episodes: "Episode 1.1 "Episode 1.2"
2004-07	Smallville	Vince Davis/Wes Keenan	Episodes: "Resurrection" "Nemesis" "Prototype"
2004-09	Battlestar Galactica (series)	Lt./Capt. Karl "Helo" Agathon	Series regular
2004	The L Word	Sheriff	Episode: "Losing It"
2004-05	Cold Squad	Det. Ray Chase	Series regular; season 7 (13 episodes)
2006	Hush	Noah Hamilton	TV movie
2006	Lesser Evil	Greg	TV movie
2007	Robot Chicken	Armpit/Karl C. Agathon/Scott Trakker	Episode: "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster"
2007	Battlestar Galactica: Razor	n/a	credit only
2007	Whistler	Elias Noth	Episodes: "Passion Plays" "Always a Bridesmaid" "Crossroads" "Last Run"
2009	Titan Maximum	Troy Hammerschmiddtt (voice)	Episodes: "Went to Party, Got Crabs" "To Eris, Human" "Megamum Overdrive" "Mercury Falling"
2009-10	Dollhouse	Paul Ballard	Series regular (27 episodes)
2010	Riverworld	Matt Ellman	TV movie
2010	Human Target	Pete	Episode: "Ilsa Pucci"
2011	Mortal Kombat: Legacy	Lt. Kurtis Stryker	Episodes: "Jax, Sonya and Kano: Part 1" "Jax, Sonya and Kano: Part 2"
2011-12	The Killing	Gregory "Greg" Casher (formerly Linden)	Episodes: "Beau Soleil" "Ghosts of the Past"
2011	Jabberwock	Francis	TV movie
2011	Haven	Simon Crocker	Episode: "Sins of the Fathers"
2011	Innocent	Jimmy Brand	TV movie
2012	Castle	Cole Maddox	Episodes: "Always" "After the Storm"
2012-13	Continuum	Jim Martin	Episodes: "The Politics of Time" "Second Chances" "Second Degree" "Second Guess" "Minute Man"
2012	Fairly Legal	Mark Ellison	Episode: "Bait & Switch"
2012	Arrow	Nick Salvati	Episode: "Muse of Fire"
2013	Bomb Girls	Clifford	Episodes: "Fifth Column" "Something Fierce" "Romeo Foxtrot" "Kings and Pawns" "Blood Relations"
2013-14	Supernatural	Ezekiel/Gadreel/Gadreel's vessel	Episodes: "I think I'm gonna like it here" "Road Trip" "Meta Fiction" "King of the Damned" "Stairway to Heaven" "Do you believe in Miracles?"
2014	Star-Crossed	SEU Officer Jack Beaumont	Episode: "These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends" "Our Toil Shall Strive to Mend"
2014	Criminal Minds	Michael Hastings	Episode: "200"
2014	Reign	John Prevo	Episode: Higher Ground
2014	Strange Empire	Marshall Mercredi	Recurring role
2015	Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles	Steve Trevor	Web series
2015	Angel of Christmas	Derek	TV movie
2015	Riftworld Chronicles	Alar	Web series
2016	Real Detective "Malice"	Detective C.W. Jensen	TV Series (1 Episode)

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Need for Speed: Carbon	Darius	Voice and likeness

[ Source: Wikipedia ]