Background

Mawle was born on March 21, 1974, in Oxford, England. He grew up in a Victorian manor house on a farm outside Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. He is one of three children from a family with a history of nine generations of farming in Warwickshire. His mother was a teacher. His father Richard still farms the land.

Education

Mawle attended the Croft prep school on the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was diagnosed as severely dyslexic; consequently, he went from the ages of 13 to 16 to a boarding school for special needs.

Mawle left the school at 16 to become an actor but contracted labyrinthitis, leaving him 70 percent hearing-impaired in the upper register and with tinnitus. He persuaded the director of the local college at Stratford-upon-Avon to let him study for a BTEC in performing arts while doing an assortment of jobs such as fitness instructor and dishwasher. He also did some acting for the Box Clever Theatre Company and in his own production of Solo Hamlet. Mawle won a scholarship to study at the Bristol Old Vic's theatre school. Mawle graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2002.

Career

In 2002, Joseph Mawle appeared in the Irish Hurling TV adverts for Guinness. He left in 2002, with no agent, and worked as an assistant in a special needs school. He landed his first major role in a 2003 production of Troilus and Cressida, playing Troilus for Shakespeare at the Tobacco factory, worked at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in Hamlet, and in the Royal Exchange, Manchester's production of Antony and Cleopatra in 2005.

It was his performance in the television film Soundproof (2006), wherein a deaf actor was needed for the lead role, that made his biggest impact. Mawle has appeared in a number of subsequent British television productions, including Dunkirk, winner of the Huw Wheldon BAFTA Award for Factual Drama, and Adrian Shergold's Persuasion (2007) and Channel 4's gay drama Clapham Junction, in the role of Tim. Time Out said, "Mawle and Treadaway put in Bafta-winning efforts". In 2008, Mawle starred as Jesus in the BBC/HBO Films miniseries of The Passion, and as a guest star in the Foyle's War "Broken Souls" episode.

In 2008, Mawle returned to the theatre in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, at the Almeida Theatre, directed by Rupert Goold. In 2009, Mawle featured in multiple films: James Marsh's Nineteen Eighty (part of the Red Riding Trilogy), Philip Ridley's Heartless, and Dominic Savage's Freefall opposite Dominic Cooper and Aidan Gillen. On television that year, he starred in episode 4 of Jimmy McGovern's The Street.

In 2010, Mawle featured in artist David Austen's End of Love and in the short film Sometimes The Moon Is Velvet, which toured festivals. He also appeared in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, the BBC drama Five Daughters, Dominic Savage's Dive, and Made in Dagenham starring Sally Hawkins. In 2011, he starred as Gerald Crich alongside Rosamund Pike as Crich's lover Gudrun Brangwen, in the BBC Four television adaptation of Women in Love.

Also in 2011, he was featured in The Horrible Crowes' music video for their debut single "Behold the Hurricane" and m joined the HBO series Game of Thrones as Benjen Stark. Mawle appeared in the pilot episode and returned to the role in Season 6.

Mawle appeared in several projects in 2012, including the Working Title production of Sebastian Faulks' acclaimed novel Birdsong, the Bruce Willis film The Cold Light of Day, the Tim Burton-produced film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and the independent British film Shell. 2013 saw Mawle portray Stephen Beaumont in The Tunnel, and Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine on Ripper Street. Mawle had a lead role in the horror film The Hallow.

Achievements

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  Joseph Mawle is best known for his role as Benjen Stark in the popular HBO television series, Game of Thrones. He was nominated for the RTS Breakthrough on Screen Award, in 2007. He was listed for Outstanding Newcomer by the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and nominated for WhatsOnStage Theatre Choice Awards for Best Newcomer for his performance as Judas, in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Made In Dagenham

    (Confronting a male-dominated corporate machine and the op...)

    2010
  • Merlin

    (The legendary wizard sets out to raise young Arthur as a ...)

    1998
  • In the Heart of the Sea

    (In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex...)

    2015
  • Clapham Junction

    (The film centres on the experiences of several gay men du...)

    2007
  • Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

    (Abraham Lincoln, history's greatest hunter of the undead,...)

    2012
  • The Hallow

    (A family moves to a remote house in rural Ireland and fin...)

    2015
  • Persuasion

    (An unmarried woman (Sally Hawkins) encounters her former ...)

    2007
  • The Cold Light Of Day

    (An overseas family trip takes a dangerous turn for Will (...)

    2012
  • Half of a Yellow Sun

    (Sisters Olanna and Kainene return home to 1960s Nigeria, ...)

    2013
  • Red Riding 1980

    (A thrilling trilogy based on David Peace's cult noir nove...)

    2009
  • Dunkirk

    (A docudrama tracing the events at Dunkirk in 1940, during...)

    2004
  • Heartless

    (Jamie Morgan has a large heart-shaped birthmark that cove...)

    2009
  • Troy: Fall of A City

    (An epic story of love and war, intrigue and betrayal. Whe...)

    2018
  • Women in Love

    (Adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novels "The Rainbow" and "W...)

    2011

• TV series

  • Ripper Street

    (The streets of Whitechapel are the haunt of Detective Ins...)

    2013
  • Birdsong

    (As an English soldier fights in the horrific trenches of ...)

    2012
  • Game of Thrones

    (Nine noble families wage war against each other in order ...)

    2011
  • Tunnel

    (A prominent French politician is found dead on the border...)

    2013
  • Dalziel & Pascoe

    (Supt. Dalziel and partner DI Pascoe investigate murders, ...)

    2006

Views

Joseph Mawle is not a big fan of killing animals.

Quotations: "I grew up on a farm, so there were rifles around. Every March around springtime, there's a big hunt that goes on, and you go out and hunt down all the pheasants. I actually never shot the pheasants; I'm not a big fan of killing animals myself."

"I worked for a while as a teaching assistant while I was struggling. I really enjoyed it, working with kids with special needs, autism. It takes a hell of a lot of concentration, and you've got to focus on the child properly for seven hours a day."

"I don't know whether I much enjoyed education. I was not academically gifted."

"I tell people that if I'm ignoring them, chances are I may not have heard them. I depend on hearing aids, but I've not found it a problem. I'm visually very aware!"

"I grew up in a farming family. I hated cleaning out the chickens but loved hatching them and feeding the new born sheep. The smell of hot milk still has a special resonance for me. Harvest was back-breaking work, though... Where do you think Jesus got his biceps from?"

"Ultimately, the idea of acting is to understand the people you're playing, and then where they're coming from is not so mystifying. You've got to detox a bit after, though."

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Joseph Mawle was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age.

He had to deal with a serious hearing impairment when he was younger.

Height: 5' 10" (1,78 m).

Interests

• Artists

  Judy Blame

• Music & Bands

  Mick Jagger

Connections

Joseph Mawle is not married.

colleague:

Kit Harington

Kit Harington is an English actor and producer. He is best known for portraying the role of ‘Jon Snow’ in the ‘HBO’ series ‘Game of Thrones.’

colleague:

Richard Madden

Richard Madden is a Scottish actor. He is best known for playing Robb Stark in the world-renowned American fantasy television series ‘Game of Thrones.’

colleague:

Michelle Fairley

Michelle Fairley is a Northern Irish actress, best known for her roles as Catelyn Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2013), Dr. Ava Hessington in multiple episodes of USA Network series Suits (2013), and as terrorist Margot Al-Harazi, a main antagonist in 24: Live Another Day (2014).

colleague:

Isaac Hempstead-Wright

(born April 9, 1999)

He is an English actor.

References

• Joseph Mawle - Twitter