Ben Cotton

Ben Cotton is a Canadian actor born on July 26, 1975. Throughout his career in film and television, he has built a diverse body of work across science fiction, drama, comedy, and horror productions. His screen achievements encompass roles in multi-season television series, feature films, voice roles, and video game performances.

Cotton gained prominent television recognition playing scientist Dr. Kavanagh in the science fiction series Stargate Atlantis between 2004 and 2009. In 2009, he played Shane Pierce, a local townie, in the CBS series Harper's Island. He later appeared as Lieutenant Coker Fasjovik in Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome in 2012. In 2016, Cotton starred as Captain Ben Sawyer in the television series Mars, and from 2021 to 2025, he played the recurring character Jimmy in Resident Alien.

Over the course of his television career, Cotton has appeared in a wide array of popular shows. His early small-screen roles included Smallville in 2002, The 4400 in 2005, and Whistler in 2007. He also made appearances in individual episodes or story arcs of Supernatural, Blood Ties, Flash Gordon, Robson Arms, jPod, and Hellcats. His television work continued with appearances in Arrow, Alcatraz, Fringe, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, iZombie, Limetown, Debris, and the 2023 action thriller series The Night Agent.

Cotton's feature film and television movie credits are similarly extensive. In 2006, he played Charlie in the horror-comedy Slither, appearing alongside projects such as The Cabin Movie, A Simple Curve, Heartfelt Café, and Family in Hiding. His subsequent cinematic credits include roles in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Mayerthorpe, Messages Deleted, Christmas in Canaan, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, and Doppelgänger Paul.

During the 2010s and 2020s, Cotton continued working steadily in film productions. He appeared in feature projects including Cinemanovels, Lawrence & Holloman, Songs She Wrote About People She Knows, Kid Cannabis, The Unseen, Gregoire, Crown and Anchor, Cold Pursuit, Hammer, and An Awkward Balance.

In addition to live-action screen roles, Cotton has expanded into interactive entertainment and animated voice acting. He portrayed the character Leon Bell in the video game Dead Rising 2. Later, between 2022 and 2024, he provided the voice for the character Rex Igneous in the animated series The Dragon Prince.