Charles Mesure

After graduating from Sydney acting school NIDA in 1995, British-born Charles Mesure got busy acting on Kiwi television. A role in City Life won him early attention; playing Detective Kees Van Dam in Street Legal won him an NZ TV award (he also wrote seven episodes). In 2010 Mesure starred as the bewildered hero of sci-fi series This is Not My Life, and joined fantasy Kaitangata Twitch. Since then he has mainly worked in American television. He was a hero on alien invasion tale V, a love interest in the final season of Desperate Housewives, legendary pirate Black beard on Once Upon a Time, and master magician The Beast on The Magicians.

I guess I’m getting to a certain age where there’s a gruff, authoritative kind of thing that I can do quite well. Charles Mesure, in a 1 July 2005 Listener interview