Damon Herriman

Life and career

Damon Herriman was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He began acting in local television commercials at the age of eight, but it was not until he was cast as Frank Errol in The Sullivans two years later that his career began to take off. He continued to work solidly as a child actor, with a return to The Sullivans a year later, as well as the Australian series The Patchwork Hero, Sara Dane, For the Term of His Natural Life and Taurus Rising. He received three Logie Award nominations for his performance in The Sullivans.

After appearing in The Flying Doctors, for which he won the Penguin Award for Excellence in a Performance by a Juvenile, and the children's mini-series Elly & Jools, Herriman was cast as Mark Jorgensen, the bespectacled best friend of Ben Mendelsohn's Danny Clark in the Australian cult comedy classic, The Big Steal.

As well as continuing to work solidly in film, television and theatre, Herriman has also written and/or directed many successful short films, including the Tropfest finalsts They and The Date. In 2004, he won the Best Screenplay award at Flickerfest for the short film Soar, in which he also performed. He was a performer and contributing writer on the ABC sketch comedy series, The Elegant Gentleman's Guide to Knife Fighting.

Herriman is known to Australian audiences for playing Claudia Karvan's workmate and friend George Wagstaffe in the critically acclaimed Foxtel series Love My Way; as Marcus Dwyer in the ABC comedy, Laid; as simpleton Reg in the Australian feature, 100 Bloody Acres; as well as the title role in the ABC telemovie, The Outlaw Michael Howe. In 2014, he was seen as manager Chris Murphy in the miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, as well as appearing in Josh Lawson's debut feature, The Little Death and the Australian film starring Ewan McGregor, Son of a Gun. In Australia he was last seen in Abe Forsythe's feature, Down Under and the Foxtel mini-series, Secret City (for which he received the AACTA award for supporting actor in a drama).

In 2004, he played the creepy roadkill truck driver in the US horror film House of Wax, and since 2005 has worked regularly in the United States, appearing in such productions as The Unit; Redbelt (both written and directed by David Mamet); Breaking Bad; Wilfred; CSI; The Loop; Cold Case; as well as the pilot for the unaired Dick Wolf series, Lost and Found; and mysterious hitman Mr. Jones on the CBS crime series, Vegas.

He played the convicted kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby, Bruno Hauptmann, in the Clint Eastwood-helmed J. Edgar (2011), and one of the Cavendish gang in Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger (2013).

In 2014 he recurred as Niblet on the Vince Gilligan/David Shore series for CBS, Battle Creek, and played the homeless Romeo in the Starz limited series, Flesh and Bone. He was recently seen as the violent hitman Buddy in the first season of the HBO/Cinemax series, Quarry.

Herriman is best known in the US for playing Dewey Crowe in five seasons of the FX series, Justified.