Roger Cross

The Pilot Who Landed on a Set

Roger Cross wasn't thinking about the spotlight when he landed in Vancouver from Jamaica. He was eleven years old, and Canada's cold was a whole new world. He studied aviation at Trinity Western University and earned his commercial pilot's license. But acting crossed his flight path by accident while he was looking for summer jobs.

He started out as a stunt performer.

In 1993, he landed a small role on The X-Files. It was the start of a long relationship with science fiction produced in Canada. During the 1990s, he appeared in Sliders, Stargate SG-1 and Highlander. He wasn't chasing fame. He built a reputation as a reliable actor who always showed up on time and knew his lines by heart.

The Agent Who Didn't Survive Jack Bauer

His big break came in 2005. He joined the fourth season of 24 to play Curtis Manning. The character connected with audiences because he brought a tense calm to the chaos of Kiefer Sutherland. Cross lasted 45 episodes on a show that chewed up supporting actors every week.

And then he was killed off.

Manning's death in 2007 was a technical turning point in his career. The actor has explained that he learned of his character's fate shortly before filming the gunshot scene. That forced exit allowed him to move on to other projects with greater dramatic weight outside the real-time format.

In 2012, he joined the cast of Continuum, playing Travis Verta. The role demanded an imposing physical presence and a darker range than usual. The series ran until 2015 and gave him the confidence to take on one TV job after another.

Spaceships and Tight Budgets

He almost immediately joined Dark Matter in 2015. For three seasons he brought to life Six, a character trapped on a spaceship with amnesia. The production was demanding due to tight shooting schedules and constant use of green screens. Cross prefers a physical set, but he understands that fantasy genres dominate the Canadian industry.

He alternated space travel with the biological horror of The Strain between 2014 and 2015.

His work rate is methodical. In 2021, he appeared in several episodes of Coroner, and in 2023 he stayed busy on Murdoch Mysteries. He doesn't choose roles based on how big his name is on movie posters. He looks for projects that let him stay close to his base in Vancouver.

Has more than 150 credits in film and television since he stopped flying airplanes professionally.

His filmography is full of uniformed or badge-carrying characters, but the actor avoids being typecast off set. During the recording of the movie Justice League Dark in 2017, he voiced two different characters on the same recording day. The session lasted nine hours straight inside the sound booth.