The Biography

John Tench (born October 7, 1965, in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American-Canadian actor, director, writer, and poet, 6′ 0″ (183 cm) tall, who grew up in Canada and began working in theatre and film in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. He started his career at the legendary Factory Theatre Lab with Ken Gass, then studied and worked in New York City, London, Paris, and across Continental Europe before returning to Toronto, where he founded the influential theatre company Theatre Kathartic in 1980, touring internationally with works by Sam Shepard, Dario Fo, and Bertolt Brecht. He is a master of accents and dialects, has been nominated for numerous Best Actor awards, and currently teaches directing and scene study at the Toronto Film School and Yorkville University. His most notable film credits include a Knot Top Gang Member in Watchmen (2009, directed by Zack Snyder), Roughneck #2 in Brokeback Mountain (2005, directed by Ang Lee), a Motel Owner in Shooter (2007, directed by Antoine Fuqua), Viktor in The Colony (2013), Hondo in Angel and the Badman (2009), and a Cowboy Pimp in Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009). On television he is best known as Alexander Graham Bell in Murdoch Mysteries (2012, 5 episodes), with additional credits in American Gods (2017), Schitt's Creek (2019), Alias Grace (2017, 4 episodes), Designated Survivor (2016), Fringe (2009), Stargate SG-1 (2007), The X-Files (1995), Friday the 13th: The Series (1989), and Ginny & Georgia (2021). In video games he voiced T-Bone Grady in Watch Dogs 2 (2016) and Dutch Roosevelt in Far Cry 5 (2018).