Dominic Sherwood

The Stigma of the Two-Toned Gaze

Dominic Sherwood was born in Kent in 1990 and carries a genetic trait that Hollywood has tried to exploit since his first casting. He has one blue eye and one brown eye (partial heterochromia). This physical detail gave him a mystical aura even before he learned to modulate his voice for drama.

He studied acting in Maidstone and spent a season working in theater before trying his luck in British television. His first steps were modest. He appeared in the series The Cut in 2010 in a supporting role that barely covered his rent in London.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2014, he landed his first major film role with Vampire Academy. He played Christian Ozera in a production that aimed to inherit the audience of other young-adult franchises but ended up a resounding box office flop worldwide. The film barely grossed 15 million dollars against a much larger budget.

The teen adaptation bubble

But the stumble in film didn't slow his career. In 2015, singer Taylor Swift chose him to star in the music video for Style. Those four minutes of carefully crafted aesthetics gave him a global visibility that no B-movie could match. It was the decisive springboard into the radar of major American networks.

So in 2016, he landed the project that would bring him worldwide fame. For three seasons, he brought Jace Herondale to life in Shadowhunters, the television adaptation of Cassandra Clare's novels. The series stayed on air until 2019 and built an extremely loyal fan base on social media.

The show's cancellation was a hard blow for the crew.

Despite the media noise, Sherwood kept a low profile off set. During the show's run, he focused on improving his physical technique because most of his scenes required demanding combat training. He didn't use stunt doubles for even the most basic action sequences.

The jump to adult thrillers

After wrapping up his teen-star phase, he looked for projects with a darker tone and less fantasy. In 2020, he joined the cast of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. He played Kurt, a character tied to the Nazi plot in Los Angeles in the 30s. The series was canceled after one season, but it helped him move away from the teen heartthrob image.

In 2022, he starred in Eraser: Reborn, a reboot of the classic 1990s action movie. The project went straight to the domestic market without going through movie theaters. It was a risky bet that received mixed reviews for its lack of originality compared to Schwarzenegger's original film.

That same year he joined the Netflix series The Recruit.

In this production, he plays a CIA agent and shares the screen with Noah Centineo. Filming for the second season was scheduled for 2024 in locations in South Korea and the United States. His salary per episode on major streaming productions is estimated at around 40,000 dollars.