Blake Robbins

Blake Robbins (born June 17, 1965) is an American actor and director of film and television. He appeared in the films Wind River, The Ugly Truth, Jayhawkers, and To Leslie. Robbins is also known for his guest-starring appearances as Officer Dave Brass on the HBO drama series Oz, Tom on the NBC sitcom The Office, and Mitch Glender on the FX crime drama series Sons of Anarchy, as well as supporting roles in Firefly, Law & Order, 24, Entourage, and The Bling Ring.

Blake Robbins
Born	(1965-06-17) June 17, 1965 (age 59) Karamürsel, Turkey
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States Turkey
Alma mater	American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Occupations	Actor director
Years active	1996–present

After almost two decades working as an actor, Robbins stepped behind the camera and made his directorial debut with the independent drama The Sublime and Beautiful, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. His second feature as director, the modern-day western The Scent of Rain and Lightning starring Maika Monroe, received critical acclaim.

Early life

Robbins was born in Karamürsel, Turkey, where his father served in the United States Navy.^[1] Robbins has one brother. His parents divorced when he was little and his mother remarried. Robbins had a strong connection with his stepfather, who passed away in April 2013. Robbins's biological father along with his brother struggled with alcoholism.^[2] After earning a degree in Business Marketing, Robbins attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.^[1] Soon after, he began to perform on Broadway, working also as an acting coach for a while.^[3] Robbins currently resides in Los Angeles.^[4]

Career

Robbins began his career in 1996 with a guest appearance in an episode of the ABC soap opera All My Children. He went on to guest star in television series such as Law & Order, Third Watch and Firefly, before landing a recurring role as Officer Dave Brass in the HBO drama Oz between 2001 and 2003. During the 2000s, Robbins continued acting on the series Charmed, Strong Medicine, Medium, Crossing Jordan, The O.C., 24, Without a Trace, Criminal Minds and Private Practice. Robbins also appeared as Tom on the NBC's comedy The Office, opposite Steve Carell and John Krasinski.^[5]

Robbins' first film role was in the independent drama Going Under. Since then, he has appeared in other features including Love Comes to the Executioner, Bunker Hill, and the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth, in which he stars alongside Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.

Throughout the 2010s, Robbins guest-starred in several television series including FlashForward, The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, CSI: NY, Sons of Anarchy, Masters of Sex and Legends. Simultaneously, Robbins worked on a number of independent films, namely Rubber, Jayhawkers, Martyrs and Wind River. More recently, he starred in the Marcel Sarmiento horror thriller Faceless.^[6]

Robbins made his directorial debut with the independent drama The Sublime and Beautiful, which he also wrote and stars in as David Conrad, a father who loses his children in a car accident.^[7] Shot in only 12 days on a budget of $30,000,^[8] the film premiered at the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival.^[7] Writing for Variety, film critic Ronnie Scheib stated that Robbins "brings nothing new to Hollywood's dead-children genre".^[9]

Robbins directed his second film, The Scent of Rain and Lightning, starring Maika Monroe. Based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Nancy Pickard, the story centers on Jody Linder (Monroe), a young woman who finds out the man responsible for murdering her parents has been released from prison.^[10][11] Having its world premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival,^[12] the film garnered a positive reception from critics; in his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck opined that it was "a well-acted, intelligent thriller".^[13]

Filmography

Film

†	Denotes productions that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Going Under	Axel
2005	Alice	The Intruder	Short film
2006	Love Comes to the Executioner	Stuttering Guard
	Arc	Thomas Blake
2007	The Son of Sam's Daughter	Ben's Dad	Short film
2008	Christmas Break	Mr. Chatsworth	Short film
	Bunker Hill	Delmar
2009	The Only Good Indian	Moller
	The Ugly Truth	KPQU Big Wig
2010	Rubber	Cop Eric
2011	Part Time Fabulous	Dr. Carr
	Dispatch	Killer
2012	The Men's Room	The Man	Short film
	Between the Forest and the Field	Daniel	Short film
	Blackout	Jimmy	Short film
2013	Imprints	Doctor	Short film
	Cliff	Dr. Keanon	Short film
	The Lull Breaker	Pa	Short film
	The Championship Rounds	Phillip	Short film
2014	The Sublime and Beautiful	David Conrad	also writer, producer and director
	Jayhawkers	Dick Harp
	Buttwhistle	Mr. Blancmange
	Moths	Mr. Cunningham	Short film
2015	Martyrs	Dad
2016	Ctrl Alt Delete	Charlie
	From Ashes to Immortality	Jon Orr	Short film
2017	Wind River	Tim
	The Scent of Rain and Lightning	Sheriff Don Phelps	also director and producer
	DriverX	Rick
2018	Funny Story	Dan
	Backpedals	Hugo	Short film
2019	Let's Scare Julie	Uncle Vince	One-shot feature film
	Things That Fall	The Professor	Short film
2021	Faceless	Tom
2022	To Leslie	The Handyman
2023	Line of Fire	Bobby	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	All My Children	Valet	1 episode
1999	Law & Order	Heinrich	Episode: "Marathon"
2000	Third Watch	Peter	Episode: "History"
2002	Push, Nevada	Lexus Driver	Episode: "Jim's Domain"
	Firefly	Agent McGinnis	Episode: "Ariel"
2001–2003	Oz	Officer Dave Brass	15 episodes
2003	10-8: Officers on Duty	Dr. Lawrence	Episode: "Late for School"
2004	Cold Case	David Lake	Episode: "Late Returns"
	Charmed	Patrol Officer	Episode: "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World: Part 1"
	Strong Medicine	Morgan Benedicto	Episode: "Healing Touch"
2005	Medium	Trooper	Episode: "A Priest, a Doctor and a Medium Walk Into an Execution Chamber"
	Crossing Jordan	Peter Ellison	Episode: "Embraceable You"
	Wanted	Martin Beckwith	Episode: "The Promise of Darkness"
	The O.C.	Don	2 episodes
2006	E-Ring	James Ogilvy	Episode: "Five Pillars"
	24	Ross	Episode: "Day 5: 2:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m."
2007	Without a Trace	Craig Dalton	Episode: "Connections"
2008	Eli Stone	Howard Masters	Episode: "Heartbeat"
	Criminal Minds	Jonathan Morris	Episode: "A Higher Power"
	Private Practice	Mark Miller	Episode: "A Family Thing"
	Entourage	Guy on Plane	Episode: "First Class Jerk"
2008–2009	The Office	Tom Halpert	2 episodes
2010	The Forgotten	Dr. Max Rayburn	Episode: "Patient John"
	FlashForward	Special Agent Buckner	4 episodes
	The Closer	Mr. Witten	Episode: "Heart Attack"
	Secret Millionaires	Dr. Cadillac	1 episode
2011	Rizzoli & Isles	Scott James	Episode: "Brown Eyed Girl"
	The Bling Ring	Mr. Bishop	Television film
2012	CSI: NY	Jimmy Portico	Episode: "2,918 Miles"
	NCIS	Scott Martin	Episode: "Gone"
2013	Monday Mornings	Dr. David Martin	Episode: "Pilot"
	Sons of Anarchy	Mitch Glender	2 episodes
	Masters of Sex	Security Guard Brown	Episode: "Manhigh"
2014	Legends	Dennis Evans	2 episodes
2015	The Ultimate Evil	David Berkowitz	unknown episodes
2017	Law & Order True Crime	Harry	3 episodes
2021	Bad Vibes	Rob	1 episode

Awards and nominations

Award ceremony	Year	Work(s)	Category	Result	Ref.
Cleveland International Film Festival	2017	The Scent of Rain and Lightning	Best American Independent Feature Film	Nominated	[1]
Kansas City FilmFest	2014	The Sublime and Beautiful	Heartland – Best Feature Narrative	Won	[14]
			Heartland – Best Narrative Feature	Won
	2017	The Scent of Rain and Lightning	Best Narrative Feature	Won	[15]
Milan International Film Festival	2014	The Sublime and Beautiful	Best Actor	Won	[16]
			Best Director	Nominated
			Best Best Screenwriting	Nominated
Nashville Film Festival	2017	The Scent of Rain and Lightning	Bridgestone Narrative Feature Competition	Nominated	[17]
Newport Beach Film Festival	2014	The Sublime and Beautiful	Directing	Won	[18]
			Best Feature Film	Won
			Best Actor	Won
Slamdance Film Festival	2014	The Sublime and Beautiful	Best Narrative Feature	Nominated	[19]
			Narrative Feature Film	Nominated

References

1. "The Scent of Rain and Lightning". Clevelandfilm.org. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
2. "Blake Robbins' 'The Sublime and Beautiful' Is Anything But". TheBlot Magazine. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
3. Pattnosh, Lynn (December 16, 2014). "Blake Robbins Interview: 'The Sublime and Beautiful'". Concierge Questionnaire. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
4. Diab, Emma (February 23, 2014). "A Portrait of Grief: An Interview with Actor and Filmmaker Blake Robbins". GALO Magazine. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
5. Vanni, Olivia (December 8, 2008). "Blake Robbins ponders Sundance trip". Boston Herald. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
6. Billington, Alex (January 27, 2021). "Mysterious Face Transplant Horror-Thriller 'Faceless' Official Trailer". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
7. Iwasaki, Scott (January 18, 2014). "Blake Robbins wore many hats for 'The Sublime and Beautiful'". The Park Record. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
8. Lambie, Ryan (February 15, 2018). "Blake Robbins interview: The Scent Of Rain And Lightning, indie filmmaking". Den of Geek. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
9. Scheib, Ronnie (January 23, 2014). "Slamdance Film Review: 'The Sublime and Beautiful'". Variety. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
10. Sneider, Jeff (November 5, 2015). "Logan Miller, Mark Webber, Justin Chatwin Join 'The Scent of Rain and Lightning'". The Wrap. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
11. Collinson, Gary (February 18, 2018). "Exclusive Interview – Director Blake Robbins on The Scent of Rain and Lightning". Flickering Myth. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
12. McAllister, Cameron (March 13, 2017). "Atlanta Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup of Features and Short Films". Atlanta Film Festival. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
13. Scheck, Frank (February 15, 2018). "'The Scent of Rain and Lightning': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
14. Melin, Eric (June 22, 2014). "The films of the Free State Festival". Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
15. "Kansas City Film Fest: "The Scent of Rain & Lightning"". Kshb.com. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
16. "Vincitori 14ª Edizione – 2014". Miff.it. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
17. Wynn, Ron (April 20, 2017). "Reel Nashville: Your Guide to the 48th Annual Nashville Film Festival". Nashville Scene. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
18. Chang, Richard (May 5, 2014). "Newport Film Festival ends in black with record attendance". The Orange County Register. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
19. Hanna, Beth (December 3, 2013). "Slamdance Film Festival 2014 Unveils Feature Film Competition Lineup". IndieWire. Retrieved November 5, 2021.

External links

• Blake Robbins at IMDb