Mark Ross Pellegrino (born April 9, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his work as Lucifer in Supernatural, Paul Bennett in Dexter, Jacob in Lost, James Bishop in Being Human, Clayton Haas in Quantico, Joe Messing in Mulholland Drive, and Deputy Bill Standall in 13 Reasons Why.
Early life, family and education Mark Pellegrino was born in Pasadena, California and grew up in Van Nuys, California. - Time Starts at 2:47 and Ends at 2:57. He attended Notre Dame High School. - Time Starts at 7:20 and Ends At 8:30. When he was in high school, he co-founded and sang in a heavy metal band, XL. It disbanded after school was finished. - Time Starts at 1:09:04 and Ends at 1:10:40.
Although he enrolled in college and achieved straight As, he dropped out after a year. He saw an advertisement for a modeling agency at a place called John Roberts Powers, where he received some free training. During his training he was picked out for talent by commercial agent Bob Hoover. He was set up with an agent and acting coaches. From there he was sent out into the world of acting and discovered the Meisner acting method. He had no dream to become an actor at the time.
For most of his life, Mark believed Bill Pellegrino (whom his mother divorced when he was two years old) was his biological father. As an adult, Mark ran a search on ancestry.com to learn more about his heritage. He discovered his DNA did not indicate Italian ancestry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he asked fans of TV show Supernatural on Twitter (now named X) if they would be interested in finding his real father. Within an hour of posting, his father was found along with the knowledge of having two sisters and three brothers. - Time Starts at 48:00 and Ends at 48:35. His biological father, Gerry, is of German descent.
Career Pellegrino's first appearance into television was on season 2, episode 2 of the series L.A. Law. His debut film role was that of a narcotics dealer in 1987's Fatal Beauty. Some of his earlier television appearances are also in Northern Exposure, Tales from the Crypt, ER, Without a Trace, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Hunter, and The Commish.
In 1989, he portrayed Hulk Hogan's younger brother in No Holds Barred.
In 1991, he co-starred in Prayer of the Rollerboys as Christopher Collet's aide-de-camp.
In 1998, he played the Blonde Treehorn Thug who stuffs The Dude's head down the toilet and drops his bowling ball, breaking the floor tile, in the cult film The Big Lebowski.
In 1999, he appeared in season 7, episode 3 of The X-Files as a disgruntled fast food joint employee. He was featured in National Treasure as the background FBI agent known as Agent Johnson.
In 2001, he played a hitman in David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. He portrayed terrorist bomber Bobby James on The Beast.
In 2005, he appeared in the Academy Award winning film Capote, playing murderer Dick Hickock.
In 2006, he played Sadik Marku, an Albanian mob boss, in two episodes of Without a Trace. The first episode was in season 4, episode 22 where he guest starred alongside Mark Sheppard who played Crowley in Supernatural. The second episode was in season 5, episode 5 where he guest starred alongside Rachel Miner who played Meg Masters also which is a role in Supernatural.
In March 2009, he was cast on the ABC series Lost for an appearance in the final 2 episodes of Season 5, to play the role of the mysterious Jacob. Although the press release for the episode refers to his character simply as man No. 1, the episode revealed that he portrayed Jacob, a mysterious character pivotal to the show's plot.
On June 26, 2009, it was also announced that he was cast in a recurring role as Lucifer in season 5 of the CW series Supernatural. He played a recurring role as Lucifer in season 7, and a main role as his character in seasons 12 and 13. He played a main role in season 14 as Nick, Lucifer's vessel, and was a special guest in season 15.
In 2011 he portrayed James Bishop, the leader of a vampire clan based in Boston, in the SyFy horror series Being Human in the first season, and reprised his role in seasons 2-4 as a recurring guest..
In 2011, he and Curtis Armstrong, who played Metatron on Supernatural, guest starred alongside each other as well as their characters being enemy lawyers in season 7 of The Closer.
In 2012, he played a man that took a hit out on his wife, who also took one out on him, Daniel Drake in season 2, episode 8 of Person of Interest.
In 2015, he joined the ABC thriller series Quantico playing the recurring role of Clayton Haas.
In 2018, he voiced and motion captured his first video game role as antagonist Jacob Seed in one Ubisoft's Far Cry 5.
In 2021 and 2024, he played Virgil Poe in the American Rust TV series, a show based on the novel of the same name written by Philipp Meyer.
In July 2024, he appeared in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F as one of Captain Cade Grant's, played by Kevin Bacon, main man antagonist named Beck.
Views Pellegrino is an atheist. He is a follower of Objectivism, a philosophy created by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand.. Before that he used to be an environmentalist and a registered Democrat. - Time Starts at 5:48. Two of the ways he spreads Rand's views are through two YouTube platforms. The first one is through an affiliation with the Ayn Rand Centre UK, and the second is to his own account with a series he has created called: Reality Checks, which are videos of ideas based on philosophical topics of everyday life.
In 2014, Pellegrino described himself as a classical liberal. He is a co-founder of the American Capitalist Party. - Time Starts at 38:00 and Ends at 42:00. The party stands for individual rights, limited constitutional government, and laissez-faire capitalism.
Pellegrino is a supporter of Israel. He expressed support for Israel during the 2014 Gaza War. In January 2017, he took a government-sponsored trip to Israel, together with actors Daniel Dae Kim, Meagan Good, Sonequa Martin-Green and Kenric Green, as part of an effort to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2024, Pellegrino signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer's Oscars acceptance speech for The Zone of Interest, in which he criticized the dehumanization of victims of the ongoing Gaza genocide. In April 2025, fact-checking organization FakeReporter reported that Pellegrino was one of 30 prominent Twitter accounts promoting content from Gazawood, an Israeli Twitter account which attempts to discredit Palestinians by claiming they are exaggerating or faking their casualties.
Personal life Pellegrino is married to Tracy Pellegrino, a director and acting coach. They split their time between Paris and Los Angeles. He sometimes teaches at Playhouse Paris, a Meisner training school his wife owns and runs in Paris, France. He has stated that his favorite thing to do in the world is to teach, Time Starts at 5:00. and that his alternative choice of career would be to teach history. - Time Starts at 35:29.
Filmography
+Key Denotes works that have not yet been released
Film Year Title Role Notes1987 Fatal Beauty Frankenstein Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Punk 1989 No Holds Barred Randy Thomas Night Life Allen Patumbo 1990 Prayer of the Rollerboys Bango 1991 Blood and Concrete / Blood & Concrete: A Love Story Bartholomew "Bart" Daniels Inside Out Jack Segment "Doubletalk" - misspelled name as "Mark Pelligrino" 1992 Lethal Weapon 3 Billy Phelps Mission of Justice The Gauntlet Fighter1993 Trouble Bound Deputy Roy Midnight Witness Robert "Robbie/Rob" Patterson Bank Robber Motorcycle Cop Ted 1994 F.T.W Deputy Jimmy Sommers 1996 For Life or Death / Soul of the Avenger Earl Stockman Misspelled name as "Mark Pelligrino"1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park Tourist #6 Deleted scene Movies Kill The Temple of Phenomenal Things Dodd Macon County Jail Dan Oldum 1998 The Big Lebowski Blonde Treehorn Thug #2 A Murder of Crows Professor Arthur Corvus 1999 Clubland Lipton T Misspelled name as "Matt Pellegrino" Certain Guys Cal Word of Mouth Darrow Credited as "Robert Rand" Honest Injun 2000 House of Love Neil Credited as "Henry Taggert" Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel Tripper Drowning Mona Murphy "Murph" Calzone 2001 Say It Isn't So Jimmy Mitchelson Mulholland Drive Joe Messing Fault Lines Monsters Sally Spinelli 2002 The Killer Next Door / Ronnie Keith Schwann Mother Ghost The Waiter Misspelled name as "Mark Pellagrino" Treading Water The Actor 2003 Moving Alan Alan Kennard The Hunted Dale Hewitt 2004 Spartan Convict Twisted Jimmy Schmidt National Treasure FBI Agent Johnson 2005 Ellie Parker Justin Capote Richard Eugene "Dick" Hickock 2006 Caffeine Tom 2007 The Number 23 Kyle Flinch 2008 The Coverup / The Thacker Case Ron Pebble 2009 An American Affair Graham Caswell Two:Thirteen John Tyler Disappearing In America The Bodyguard Misspelled name as "Mark Pellligrino" only in the opening credits2011 Joint Body / The Bandit Nick Burke Bad Meat Doug Kendrew Post Mark 2013 Bad Turn Worse / We Gotta Get Out Of This Place Giff The Trials of Cate McCall Detective Robert Welch 2018 Beirut Cal Riley 2024 Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Beck Strangers in a Strange Land Grungy Man Post-production
Television