Mark Pellegrino

Mark Ross Pellegrino (born April 9, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his work as Lucifer in Supernatural, Paul Bennett in Dexter, Jacob in Lost, James Bishop in Being Human, Clayton Haas in Quantico, Joe Messing in Mulholland Drive, and Deputy Bill Standall in 13 Reasons Why.

Early life, family and education Mark Pellegrino was born in Pasadena, California and grew up in Van Nuys, California. He attended Notre Dame High School. When he was in high school, he co-founded and sang in a heavy metal band, XL. It disbanded after school was finished.

Although he enrolled in college and achieved straight As, he dropped out after a year. He saw an advertisement for a modeling agency at a place called John Roberts Powers, where he received some free training. During his training he was picked out for talent by commercial agent Bob Hoover. He was set up with an agent and acting coaches. From there he was sent out into the world of acting and discovered the Meisner acting method. He had no dream to become an actor at the time.

For most of his life, Mark believed Bill Pellegrino (whom his mother divorced when he was two years old) was his biological father. As an adult, Mark ran a search on ancestry.com to learn more about his heritage. He discovered his DNA did not indicate Italian ancestry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he asked fans of TV show Supernatural on Twitter (now named X) if they would be interested in finding his real father. Within an hour of posting, his father was found along with the knowledge of having two sisters and three brothers. His biological father, Gerry, is of German descent.

In 2011, he and Curtis Armstrong, who played Metatron on Supernatural, guest starred alongside each other as well as their characters being enemy lawyers in season 7 of The Closer.

In 2012, he played a man that took a hit out on his wife, who also took one out on him, Daniel Drake in season 2, episode 8 of Person of Interest.

In 2015, he joined the ABC thriller series Quantico playing the recurring role of Clayton Haas.

In 2018, he voiced and motion captured his first video game role as antagonist Jacob Seed in one Ubisoft's Far Cry 5.

In 2021 and 2024, he played Virgil Poe in the American Rust TV series, a show based on the novel of the same name written by Philipp Meyer.

In July 2024, he appeared in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F as one of Captain Cade Grant's, played by Kevin Bacon, main man antagonist named Beck.

Views Pellegrino is an atheist. He is a follower of Objectivism, a philosophy created by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. Before that he used to be an environmentalist and a registered Democrat. Two of the ways he spreads Rand's views are through two YouTube platforms. The first one is through an affiliation with the Ayn Rand Centre UK, and the second is to his own account with a series he has created called: Reality Checks, which are videos of ideas based on philosophical topics of everyday life.

In 2014, Pellegrino described himself as a classical liberal. He is a co-founder of the American Capitalist Party. The party stands for individual rights, limited constitutional government, and laissez-faire capitalism.

Pellegrino is a supporter of Israel. He expressed support for Israel during the 2014 Gaza War. In January 2017, he took a government-sponsored trip to Israel, together with actors Daniel Dae Kim, Meagan Good, Sonequa Martin-Green and Kenric Green, as part of an effort to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2024, Pellegrino signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer's Oscars acceptance speech for The Zone of Interest, in which he criticized the dehumanization of victims of the ongoing Gaza genocide. In April 2025, fact-checking organization FakeReporter reported that Pellegrino was one of 30 prominent Twitter accounts promoting content from Gazawood, an Israeli Twitter account which attempts to discredit Palestinians by claiming they are exaggerating or faking their casualties.

Personal life Pellegrino is married to Tracy Pellegrino, a director and acting coach. They split their time between Paris and Los Angeles. He sometimes teaches at Playhouse Paris, a Meisner training school his wife owns and runs in Paris, France. He has stated that his favorite thing to do in the world is to teach, and that his alternative choice of career would be to teach history.

Filmography

+Key Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Television Year Title Role Notes 1987 L.A. Law Punk Episode: "The Wizard of Odds" 1988 What Price Victory TV movie 1989 Doogie Howser, M.D. Dude Episode: "She Ain't Heavy, She's My Cousin"1990 Hunter John Reynolds Episode: "Brotherly Love" Tales from the Crypt Punk Episode: "The Switch"1992 Northern Exposure Rolf Hauser Episode: "Nothing's Perfect" The Hat Squad Daniel Wilson "D.W." Strong Episode: "Family Business"1993 The Commish Joe "Joey" Lund Episode: "The Ides of March" Class of '61 Skinner TV movie1994 Viper Yuri Episode: "Pilot" Renegade Cletus Freed Episode: "Living Legend" Knight Rider 2010 Robert Lee TV movie1995 Marker Charles "Chuck" Calder Episode: "The Pink Unicorn" Deadly Games Ross Logan Episode: "Car Mechanic" 1996 ER Nathan Conley Episode: "The Right Thing" Nash Bridges Ferguson Episode: "Genesis" The Sentinel Ray Weston Episode: "Out of the Past" Little Surprises Jack TV movie The Cherokee Kid Frank Bonner TV movie 1997 Born Into Exile Walter, Owner of Eatery TV movie 1997–2002 NYPD Blue Frank Watkins / Stanley Struel /Steve Dansick Special guest (seasons 5–6 and 9; 4 episodes) 1998 Brimstone Robert Busch Episode: "Ashes" 1999 The X-Files Derwood Spinks Episode: "Hungry"2001 The Beast Bobby James / Robert Tibideau Recurring role (season 1; 3 episodes) Thieves Bill Episode: "The General"2002 Crossing Jordan Keith Walker Episode: "Lost and Found" Astronauts Hollywood TV movie 2003 The Practice Herrick Smoltz Episode: "Character Evidence" 2003, 2011 CSI: Miami Jed Gold / Greg Calomar Episode: "Hurricane Anthony"Episode: "About Face" 2004 NYPD 2069 Phil Pavelka TV movie 2005, 2009 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Elliot Perolta / Bruno Curtis Episode: "Gum Drops" (deleted scene)Episode: "All In"2006 The Unit Gary Soto Episode: "Exposure" Without a Trace Sadik Marku Episode: "Requiem"Episode: "The Damage Done" 2006–2007 Dexter Paul Bennett Recurring role (seasons 1–2; 8 episodes)2007 Burn Notice Quentin King Episode: "Identity" Grey's Anatomy Chris Episode: "A Change Is Gonna Come" Women's Murder Club Sam Johannes Episode: "Maybe Baby" K-Ville Quentin Episode: "AKA" Suspect Jack Lambroso TV movie2008 Knight Rider Walter "Walt" Cooperton Episode: "Knight of the Hunter" Numb3rs Tim Hamer Episode: "Thirty-Six Hours" Prison Break Patrick Vikan Episodes: "Deal or No Deal" and "Just Business" Criminal Minds Lieutenant Evans Episode: "Brothers in Arms" 2008, 2012 Chuck Fulcrum Agent / Hector Episode: "Chuck Versus the Fat Lady"Episode: "Chuck Versus the Goodbye"2009 Fear Itself Mr. Drake Episode: "The Spirit Box" Ghost Whisperer Ben Tillman Episode: "Leap of Faith" The Philanthropist Walter Kerabatsos Episode: "San Diego" The Mentalist Von McBride Episode: "Red Menace" 2009–2010 Lost Jacob Recurring role (seasons 5–6; 7 episodes) 2009–2020 Supernatural Nick / Lucifer Recurring role (seasons 5, 7, 11; 13 episodes)Main role (seasons 12–14)Special guest (season 15; 1 episode)2011 Breakout Kings Virgil Downing Episode: "Paid in Full" The Closer Gavin Q. Baker III Recurring role (season 7; 6 episodes) Locke & Key Rendell Locke TV movie 2011–2014 Being Human James Bishop Main role (season 1)Recurring role (seasons 2–4; 5 episodes)2012 Castle Tom Dempsey / Tom Dempsey III Episode: "The Blue Butterfly" Grimm Jarold Kempfer Episode: "Bad Moon Rising" Hemingway & Gellhorn Max Eastman TV movie Revolution Jeremy Baker Recurring role (season 1; 4 episodes) Person of Interest Daniel "Danny" Drake Episode: "'Til Death" 2013–2014 The Tomorrow People Jedikiah Price Main role (season 1)2015 Chicago P.D. Jim Anderoff Episode: "Disco Bob" The Returned Jack Winship Main role (season 1) 2015–2016 Quantico Executive Assistant Director to the FBI Clayton Haas Recurring role (season 1; 11 episodes) 2017–2020 13 Reasons Why Deputy Bill Standall Recurring role (seasons 1–3; 17 episodes)Main role (season 4) 2021 9-1-1 Mitchell Trent Episode: "Brawl in Cell Block 9-1-1" 2021–2024 American Rust Virgil Poe Main role (season 1; 9 credited episodes - only appears in 6, season 2; 10 episodes) 2022 The Rookie: Feds Walter Krebs / Logan Hess Episode: "Face Off"2023 Class of '09 Mark Tupirik Special guest (season 1; 3 episodes) Underdeveloped Nader Main role (season 1; 6 credited episodes - only appears in 5 episodes) 2025 Murdaugh: Death in the Family Curtis "Eddie" SmithMiniseries A Motel Pre-production, also co-executive producer

Video games Year Title Role Notes 2018 Far Cry 5 Jacob Seed Voice and motion capture performance 2019 Anthem Grandmaster Adams Voice

Other Year Title Role Notes 2015–2018 The Hillywood Show Dancer / Slimer Supernatural Parody Supernatural Parody 2

Awards and nominations