Sam Trammell

Sam Trammell is an American actor born on January 29, 1969, in New Orleans, Louisiana, who was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. He attended Brown University, where he earned his degree in 1991. Trammell has built a career spanning theater, film, and television.

Trammell's Broadway career ran from 1995 to 1998 and included appearances in Ah, Wilderness! and The Rose Tattoo. His portrayal of Richard Miller in Ah, Wilderness!, staged at Lincoln Center, earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play as well as a Theatre World Award in 1998. His stage work extended beyond Broadway to numerous Off-Broadway productions, among them Dealer's Choice, My Night with Reg, If Memory Serves, Ancestral Voices, and Kit Marlowe at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

On television, Trammell became widely recognized for playing Sam Merlotte on the HBO fantasy drama series True Blood. That role brought him nominations for Breakout Performance – Male at the 2009 Scream Awards, Best Supporting Actor at the 2010 Scream Awards, and, as part of the cast, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. He later starred in the Netflix horror-drama series The Order in 2019 and portrayed Vice President Benjamin Hayes in the final season of Homeland, a character who assumes the presidency after the sitting president is killed.

Trammell's film credits include the 2013 drama White Rabbit, in which he played Darrell Mackey, and the 2014 adaptation of John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars, where he appeared as Michael Lancaster, the father of Hazel, played by Shailene Woodley.

In his personal life, Trammell met actress Missy Yager in 2003 while working in New York theater. The two had twin sons, born in August 2011, before later parting ways. Since 2020, Trammell has been in a relationship with actress Emmanuelle Chriqui.