# Anson Mount

Anson Adams Mount IV (born February 25, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Cullen Bohannon in the AMC western drama series Hell on Wheels, as Jim Steele on the NBC series Conviction (2006), as the Marvel Comics superhero Black Bolt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise (appearing in Inhumans and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), and as Captain Christopher "Chris" Pike in the Star Trek television series Discovery, Short Treks (2019), and Strange New Worlds (2022–present). He also starred opposite Britney Spears in the coming-of-age film Crossroads (2002). He is a member of the board of directors of METI International.

## Early life

Mount's father, Anson Adams Mount II, was one of the original contributing editors to Playboy magazine. His mother, Nancy Smith, is a former professional golfer. From his father's first marriage, Mount has an older brother (Anson Adams Mount III) and two sisters.
Mount attended Dickson County High School in Dickson, Tennessee, Sewanee: The University of the South, and Columbia University.

## Career
### Stage

In 1998, Mount starred in Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi, for which he was honored by the Drama League.
In 2008, he was a finalist for the American Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center in 2008 for his full-length play Atomic City, and won the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize for his one-act play Love Liza? In 2010 he appeared in Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters at Classic Stage Company. In 2018 he appeared in Robert O'Hara's Mankind at Playwrights Horizons.

### Film

Mount made his feature film debut in 2000 as Tully Coats in the independent film Tully.
In 2009, he produced and starred in the independent film Cook County, which earned awards at several major film festivals, including Hollywood, AFI Dallas, Nashville and SXSW.
In 2022, Mount portrayed Black Bolt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, reprising his role from 2017's Inhumans.

### Television

Mount is widely known for his role as Cullen Bohannon on AMC's hit series Hell on Wheels, which he also produced from 2014 to 2016.
In 2017, he starred as Black Bolt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) ABC television series Inhumans.
In 2018, he was cast as Captain Christopher Pike of the Starship Enterprise in the CBS series Star Trek: Discovery. His performance was well received, and inspired a popular petition for a Pike spin-off series. In 2019, he reprised his role as Pike in a few Star Trek: Short Treks episodes. In May 2020, it was announced that, due in part to fans' requests, he would star as Pike in the new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which premiered on May 5, 2022.

### Academic

Mount is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, teaching audition technique for graduate actors.
His non-fiction pieces have been published in the magazines Mosaic, The Daily Beast and Cowboys & Indians, and in the Calgary Herald newspaper.

## Personal life

On July 8, 2017, Mount announced his engagement to his longtime girlfriend, photographer Darah Trang. They were married on February 20, 2018, and have a daughter, who was born in December 2021. He is an Episcopalian.

## Credits
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2000 | Urban Legends: Final Cut | Toby Belcher | |
| 2000 | Tully | Tully Coates Jr. | |
| 2000 | Boiler Room | Broker | |
| 2002 | Crossroads | Ben Kimble | Nominated – Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Combo (shared with Britney Spears) Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Best Chemistry (shared with Britney Spears) |
| 2002 | City by the Sea | Dave Simon | |
| 2002 | Poolhall Junkies | Chris | |
| 2003 | The Battle of Shaker Heights | Miner Weber | |
| 2004 | The Warrior Class | Alec Brno | |
| 2005 | In Her Shoes | Todd | |
| 2006 | All the Boys Love Mandy Lane | Garth | |
| 2006 | Walk the Talk | Larry | |
| 2006 | Hood of Horror | Tex Jr | |
| 2007 | Privacy Policy | Detective Barry | |
| 2008 | The Two Mr. Kissels | Robert Kissel | TV movie |
| 2009 | Cook County | Bump | |
| 2009 | Burning Palms | Tom | |
| 2011 | Straw Dogs | Coach Stan Milkens | |
| 2011 | Hick | Nick | |
| 2012 | Safe | Alex Rosen | |
| 2012 | Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden | Cherry | TV movie |
| 2014 | Non-Stop | Jack Hammond | |
| 2014 | The Forger | Keegan | |
| 2014 | Supremacy | Paul Sobecki | |
| 2015 | Mr. Right | Richard Cartigan | |
| 2015 | Visions | David Maddox | |
| 2021 | The Virtuoso | The Virtuoso | |
| 2021 | Injustice | Bruce Wayne / Batman | Voice |
| 2022 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt | |
| 2022 | MK Ultra | Ford Strauss | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1999 | Ally McBeal | Kevin Wah | Episode: "Civil War" |
| 1999 | Sex and the City | Gregory | Episode: "Twenty-Something Girls vs. Thirty-Something Women" |
| 2000–2001 | Third Watch | Dr. Montville | 5 episodes |
| 2003 | Smallville | Paul Hayden | Episode: "Precipice" |
| 2003 | Line of Fire | Roy Ravelle | 13 episodes |
| 2004 | CSI: Miami | Tony Macken | Episode: "Not Landing" |
| 2004–2005 | The Mountain | Will Carver | 13 episodes |
| 2005 | Lost | Kevin | Episode: "Man of Science, Man of Faith" |
| 2006 | Conviction | Jim Steele | |
| 2007 | Law & Order | Reverend James Sterling | Episode: "Church" |
| 2007 | The Cure | Darren Elliot | |
| 2009 | Dollhouse | Vitas | Episode: "Gray Hour" |
| 2011–2016 | Hell On Wheels | Cullen Bohannon | Lead role; 55 episodes |
| 2013 | Red Widow | Evan Walraven | 3 episodes |
| 2017 | Inhumans | Black Bolt | Lead role; 8 episodes |
| 2019 | Star Trek: Discovery | Captain Christopher Pike | Series regular; 14 episodes |
| 2019–2023 | The Ready Room | Himself | 4 episodes |
| 2019 | Star Trek: Short Treks | Captain Christopher Pike | 3 episodes |
| 2021–2022 | Dota: Dragon's Blood | Kaden | Voice role; 12 episodes |
| 2022–present | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Captain Christopher Pike | Main role; 20 episodes Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor in a Streaming Series (2022) Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor in a Television Series (2024) |

### Theater

| Year | Production | Theater | Role |
| 1998 | Cymbeline | Delacorte Theater | Iachimo/Jupiter |
| 1998 | Cymbeline | Delacorte Theater | Frenchman/Roman Captain |
| 1998 | Corpus Christi | New York City Center/ Stage I | Joshua |
| 1998 | The Caucasian Chalk Circle | La MaMa E.T.C. | |
| 2002 | Elle | Zipper Theatre | photographer |
| 2008 | Glengarry Glen Ross | Macha Theater | Richard Roma |
| 2009 | Mourning Becomes Electra | Acorn Theater | Captain Adam Brant |
| 2010 | Fifth of July | Bay Street Theatre | Kenneth Talley Jr. |
| 2011 | Three Sisters | East 13th Street/CSC Theatre | Solyony |
| 2013 | Venus in Fur | Singapore Repertory Theatre-DBS Arts Centre | Thomas |
| 2018 | Mankind | Playwrights Horizons | Mark |

### As producer/director/writer

| Year | Production | type | Producer/Director/Writer | Awards |
| 2008 | Cook County | film | Producer/starring | Dallas International Film Festival 2008 Special Jury Prize Hollywood Film Awards 2008 Hollywood Discovery Award - Best Feature Film Nashville Film Festival 2008 Best of Festival Award - Honorable Mention The SXSW Film Awards 2008 The Audience Award Sidewalk Film Festival 2008 Best Feature Film |
| 2008 | Atomic City | theature | Dramaturg/playwright | |
| 2009 | In Stereo | short | Producer | |
| 2011 | Love Liza? | theature | Playwright | Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize |
| 2013 | Last Time We Checked | short | Executive producer/Director/Writer | |
| 2015–2016 | Hell on Wheels | TV | Producer | Alberta Film & Television Awards 2015 Rosie Awards: Best Dramatic Series Alberta Film & Television Awards 2016 Rosie Awards: Best Dramatic Series |

### Podcast

Mount writes, produces, and hosts The Well podcast with his longtime friend Branan Edgens. He has served as a narrator on the Pseudopod podcast, reading the Thomas Ligotti story "The Town Manager".

### Video games

| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
| 2014 | The Evil Within | Sebastian Castellanos | |
| 2015 | The Assignment (DLC) | Sebastian Castellanos | Cameo |