Tahmoh Penikett (; ; born May 20, 1975) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing
Karl "Helo" Agathon on
SyFy's 2004 television series ''
Battlestar Galactica''.
He has appeared in TV series ''
Supernatural
Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
'', ''
Dollhouse'',
the
Showcase time travel show ''
Continuum'', and as the antagonist Darius in the 2006 racing video game ''
Need for Speed: Carbon''.
Early life
Penikett was born in Whitehorse, Yukon. He is the son of former
Yukon premier
Tony Penikett, who moved to
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...
from England at age 12, and Lulla Sierra Johns, of the
White River First Nation in the Yukon. He has three siblings, twin sisters Sarah and Stephanie, sister in Fairbanks Alaska.
He graduated from the Victoria Motion Picture School and studied at the Lyric School of Acting in
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
.
Career
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".
From 2004 to 2005, Penikett portrayed Ray Chase, who appeared in eleven episodes of the Canadian police drama ''
Cold Squad''.
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
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
''
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 provided the voice for antagonist Troy Hammerschmidt in the
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...
show ''
Titan Maximum''.
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.
He starred in the first two episodes of Warner Bros' ''
Mortal Kombat: Legacy'' as
Kurtis Stryker, which debuted in April on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
; 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
''Smallville'' is an American superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produce ...
'' -- in the Season 3 episode "Resurrection" 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 neighbourhood in the 2004 ''
The L Word'' episode "
Losing It",
which also starred ''Battlestar Galactica'' co-star
Nicki Clyne in a related storyline.
In 2003, the 1978
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
television series
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...
''
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.
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.
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
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
television series
''Dollhouse'', which aired on the Fox network Friday nights at 9:00.
''Dollhouse'' was canceled at the end of its second season, and the series finale aired on Friday, January 29, 2010.
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.
In 2013, Penikett was cast in the
CW TV series ''
Supernatural
Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
'', appearing in the
ninth season premiere as a fallen angel who claims to be
Ezekiel.
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.
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.
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''.
Personal life
Penikett lives in Vancouver with his family.
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.
Filmography
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penikett, Tahmoh
1975 births
Living people
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male television actors
Canadian male voice actors
First Nations male actors
Male actors from Yukon
20th-century Canadian male actors
21st-century Canadian male actors
Canadian male Muay Thai practitioners
Canadian people of English descent
People from Whitehorse
Tutchone people