Samuel Roukin (born 15 August 1980) is an English actor. (His last name is pronounced "ROH-kin.")

Biography

Roukin was born in Southport, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed an interest in drama from an early age. After completing secondary school at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby where he was involved in many school productions and where he now returns to give acting workshops to the pupils involved in drama and English, he went on to train at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2003. Roukin finished filming Bright Star, directed by Jane Campion and based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' death at age 25.

Roukin starred in the 2008 hit film Happy-Go-Lucky as the main character's (Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins) love interest. According to the review on the Independent website by Jonathan Romney, ( Poppy ) "Realising one of her pupils is unhappy, she takes action that results in her meeting a simpatico social worker (Samuel Roukin), leading to possibly the single most convincing, no-nonsense, outright charming flirtation scene I've seen in cinema."

The film directed by the multiple award winning Mike Leigh won a host of nominations and awards worldwide for the film.

Roukin played a Snatcher in the two-part finale of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I & Part II. He was recently interviewed by DemonFM in Leicester about his current stage work.

ITV's recent two part drama DCI Banks featuring Stephen Tompkinson had Samuel playing the lead villain in a prime time mini series that was watched by over 5.5 million viewers.

After Samuel's success in DCI Banks he was chosen to play the lead detective in the ITV1 Drama Appropriate Adult the controversial drama regarding the capture of Fred West & Rosemary West. Samuel was accompanied in the drama by Double Oscar nominated actress Emily Watson (Oranges and Sunshine, Gosford Park) and Dominic West (The Hour, The Wire) who portrayed Fred West.

He played Bagot in the critically acclaimed 'Richard II', part of the cultural Olympiad of Shakespeare, directed by Rupert Goold and produced by Sam Mendes for BBC 2 and NBC.

Best films