Biography
Joseph Daniel Turner Mawle (born 21 March 1974) is an English actor renowned for his roles as Benjen Stark in Game of Thrones, Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine in Ripper Street, Firebrace in Birdsong, Jesus Christ in The Passion, and Odysseus in Troy: Fall of a City.
Born in Oxford, Mawle was raised in a Victorian manor house on a farm near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. He is one of three siblings from a family with nine generations of farming heritage in Warwickshire. His mother worked as a teacher, while his father Richard continues to farm the family land.
Mawle attended Croft prep school near Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. Consequently, from ages 13 to 16, he attended a boarding school for special needs. He left school at 16 to pursue acting but developed labyrinthitis, resulting in 70% hearing loss in the upper frequencies and tinnitus. He convinced the director of a local Stratford-upon-Avon college to allow him to study for a BTEC in performing arts while working various jobs including fitness instructor and dishwasher. Mawle also acted with the Box Clever Theatre Company and in his own production, Solo Hamlet. He earned a scholarship to study at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Graduating from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2002, Mawle appeared that year in Guinness TV adverts featuring Irish Hurling. Without an agent, he worked as an assistant in a special needs school before securing his first major role in 2003 as Troilus in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida at the Tobacco Factory. He also performed at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton in Hamlet, and in 2005 appeared in the Royal Exchange, Manchester's production of Antony and Cleopatra.
His breakthrough came with the 2006 television film Soundproof, where he played a deaf lead character. Mawle earned a nomination for the RTS Breakthrough on Screen Award, and director Ed Coulthard received a BAFTA for Best Director in 2007.
Mawle has since appeared in numerous British TV productions, including Dunkirk, which won the Huw Wheldon BAFTA Award for Factual Drama, Adrian Shergold's Persuasion, and Channel 4’s drama Clapham Junction as Tim. Time Out praised his and Treadaway’s performances as “Bafta-winning efforts.” In 2008, he portrayed Jesus in the BBC/HBO miniseries The Passion and guest-starred in Foyle’s War episode “Broken Souls.”
Returning to theatre in 2008, Mawle starred in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida Theatre, directed by Rupert Goold. He was named Outstanding Newcomer by the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and received a nomination for Best Newcomer at the WhatsOnStage Theatre Choice Awards for his portrayal of Judas.
In 2009, Mawle appeared in the films Nineteen Eighty (part of the Red Riding Trilogy) directed by James Marsh, Heartless by Philip Ridley, and Dominic Savage's Freefall alongside Dominic Cooper and Aidan Gillen. That year, he also featured in episode 4 of Jimmy McGovern’s The Street.
In 2010, Mawle took part in artist David Austen’s End of Love and 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. He starred opposite Rosamund Pike as Gerald Crich and Gudrun Brangwen in the 2011 BBC Four adaptation of Women in Love.
In 2011, Mawle joined the HBO series Game of Thrones as Benjen Stark in Season 1, returning to the role in Season 6 after a five-season absence.
His 2012 projects included the Working Title adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s novel Birdsong, the Bruce Willis film The Cold Light of Day, the Tim Burton-produced Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and the independent British film Shell.
In 2011, he appeared in The Horrible Crowes’ music video for their debut single “Behold the Hurricane.”
In 2013, Mawle portrayed Stephen Beaumont in The Tunnel and Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine in Ripper Street. He also had a leading role in the horror film The Hallow.
