--- name: "Daniel MacPherson" canonical: "https://film.one/person/daniel-macpherson" fi1m_id: "daniel-macpherson" imdb_id: "nm0534205" tmdb_id: 1229432 wikidata_id: "Q2374646" roles: ["Actor"] born: "25 April 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 64 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-24T22:56:06.660886+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Daniel MacPherson ## Identity Daniel MacPherson - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/daniel-macpherson - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** daniel-macpherson - **IMDb ID:** nm0534205 - **TMDB ID:** 1229432 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2374646 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_MacPherson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2374646, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0534205/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1229432 Actor. Born 25 April 1980 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 25 April 1980, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - **Active:** 2010–present - **Average Fi1m score:** 64, as actor, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_MacPherson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2374646, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0534205/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1229432 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Beast*](https://film.one/film/beast.md) (66) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Daniel MacPherson > In *Beast* he plays a cage fighter the sport has written off with his mouth shut and his shoulders down, and that stillness is worth more than the script around it. Nearly thirty years after *Neighbours* discovered him, it is the performance to know him by. Watch what Daniel MacPherson does when he is hit. In *Beast* (2026) he plays Patton, a cage fighter the sport has finished with, and he takes each blow like a man who has been hit a great deal and has stopped finding it interesting. Shoulders down, mouth shut, nothing to say about the fight because saying it would be a way of losing early. The film is at its best when Tyler Atkins simply points the camera at him and waits. That is the habit worth knowing about: he underplays in genres built for overplaying, and he trusts the frame to do what a line would. It is not a career anyone would have drawn up in advance. He came to acting with almost no training, discovered at sixteen and handed Joel Samuels in *Neighbours* (1998–2002), a part written for him. Then London, *Godspell* on stage and PC Cameron Tait in *The Bill* (2003–2005), then home to *City Homicide* and six seasons hosting *Dancing with the Stars*. The move to Los Angeles around 2012 brought the work he is now known for: *Infini* (2015) for Shane Abbess, *The Shannara Chronicles*, four years as Sergeant Samuel Wyatt in *Strike Back* (2017–2020), Hugo Crast in *Foundation* (2021). The recent stretch is action pictures with Russell Crowe, *Poker Face* and *Land of Bad* (2024), and now *Beast*, which he also produced. He knows how the hosting years look on the record. "I don't think anyone expected the guy who used to host Dancing with the Stars to play an MMA fighter called 'The Beast,'" he said, and the film was plainly made to close that argument. What works is the plainness. He does not sell the training scenes in *Beast* as triumph; he sells them as a job, and the effort reads as effort rather than acting. Put him next to Crowe, who is slower and heavier and makes every line cost something, and their few scenes together are the ones with any weight. What does not work is not his fault. The script by David Frigerio walks the comeback road in the order you would expect, and it rarely earns the stillness he brings to it; he is doing more than the film is. It is a quiet performance in a loud genre, and we warmed to it, more than we expected to in a film whose every beat we knew before it landed. We scored *Beast* a 66, which is where it belongs: a decent film with a better man at the centre of it. The soldiers and spacemen before it suggest he has been cast for his frame and used for his quiet. What we have not seen yet is what he does in a room where nobody hits anyone and he has to talk. Someone should find out. ## Biography Daniel MacPherson is an Australian actor and television presenter. He was born on 25 April 1980 in Sydney and began his professional career in 1998 as Joel Samuels in the soap opera *Neighbours*. His television roles include Sergeant Samuel Wyatt in *Strike Back* (2010) and Hugo Crast in *Foundation* (2021). He appeared as Patton in the film *Beast* (2026) and has also featured in *Land of Bad* (2024) and *A Wrinkle in Time* (2018). MacPherson hosted multiple series of *Dancing with the Stars* and appeared in stage productions including *Godspell*. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, strikeback.fandom.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Beast* (2026), Fi1m 66, as Patton — [page](https://film.one/film/beast.md) - *Foundation* (2021), Fi1m 61, as Hugo Crast — [page](https://film.one/tv/foundation.md) ## Complete filmography (24) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Beast* (2026), as Patton — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/beast.md) - *Land of Bad* (2024), as Colonel Duz Packett - *Poker Face* (2022), as Sam Levine - *Hopeful Romantic* (2022), as Chris - *Foundation* (2021), series, as Hugo Crast — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/tv/foundation.md) - *Bad Mothers* (2019), series, as Anton - *A Wrinkle in Time* (2018), as Calvin's Father - *Generational Sins* (2017), as Drew Caldwell - *Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child* (2016), as Kane Sommerville - *The Shannara Chronicles* (2016), series, as Arion Elessedil - *Infini* (2015), as Whit Carmichael - *Let Go* (2014), as Mark - *The Cup* (2011), as Jason Oliver - *Wild Boys* (2011), series, as Jack Keenan - *Strike Back* (2010), series, as Sergeant Samuel Wyatt - *City Homicide* (2007), series, as Detective Senior Constable Simon Joyner - *Tripping Over* (2006), series, as Ned - *BlackJack: Dead Memory* (2006), as Craig - *Celebrities Under Pressure* (2003), series, Actor - *Neighbours Revealed* (1999), series, Actor - *Sydney New Year's Eve* (1996), series, as Host - *Goosebumps* (1995), series, as Kid - *Neighbours* (1985), series, as Joel Samuels - *The Bill* (1984), series, as Cameron Tait ## Gallery - ![InStyle Women Of Style Awards: Red Carpet Awards Evening; Supermodel Miranda Kerr and friends (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/1295119/gallery-f2eeb9d936f4.jpg) InStyle Women Of Style Awards: Red Carpet Awards Evening; Supermodel Miranda Kerr and friends (2012) — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Dan_McPherson_%287202921068%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Daniel MacPherson](https://film.one/media/person/1295119/gallery-3524b277e0ef.jpg) Daniel MacPherson — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Daniel_MacPherson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Daniel Macpherson on location for City Homicide, 2008](https://film.one/media/person/1295119/gallery-51f46fc9b229.jpg) Daniel Macpherson on location for City Homicide, 2008 — Meeshly, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Dan_macpherson.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![w:Sonia Kruger and w:Daniel MacPherson at the 2011 Logie Awards](https://film.one/media/person/1295119/gallery-1fede728dd7f.jpg) w:Sonia Kruger and w:Daniel MacPherson at the 2011 Logie Awards — Eva Rinaldi (image has been altered by User:Sardaka, 2018-6-5), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Sonia_Kruger_and_Daniel_MacPherson_at_the_2011_Logie_Awards-1a.jpg/1280px-Sonia_Kruger_and_Daniel_MacPherson_at_the_2011_Logie_Awards-1a.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Daniel MacPherson and Tony Bonner, Ducati Launch 2011](https://film.one/media/person/1295119/gallery-bde3add34d77.jpg) Daniel MacPherson and Tony Bonner, Ducati Launch 2011 — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Daniel_MacPherson_and_Tony_Bonner_%285762315338%29.jpg/1280px-Daniel_MacPherson_and_Tony_Bonner_%285762315338%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/daniel-macpherson