Jamie Bamber

Birthday

Apr 3, 1973

Birthplace

Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom

Bio: As Viper pilot (and sometime commanding officer) Lee "Apollo" Adama on the hit sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica, London-born actor Jamie Bamber always defended the human race with a cool head and a quick trigger finger. The offspring of an American father and an Irish mother, Bamber no doubt had to keep his cool growing up as one of seven siblings -- including a… More Bio: As Viper pilot (and sometime commanding officer) Lee "Apollo" Adama on the hit sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica, London-born actor Jamie Bamber always defended the human race with a cool head and a quick trigger finger. The offspring of an American father and an Irish mother, Bamber no doubt had to keep his cool growing up as one of seven siblings -- including a younger brother and sisters as well as four older half-brothers -- though his early love of theater no doubt helped him to channel some of that youthful energy into creativity rather than sibling rivalry.Bamber's mother was a former actress in London before their family relocated to France, and it was she who sparked his passion for acting by casting the talented youngster as the Wicked Witch of the West in a children's theater production of The Wizard of Oz staged at the American Cathedral in Paris. Later, after earning his first professional paycheck by dubbing a French film into English while living in France, Bamber and his family moved back to the U.K. and he began to dabble in commercial work. As a student at St. Paul's School in London, Bamber honed his love for the stage and the field by alternating between acting and athletics, eventually moving on to study French and Italian literature at Cambridge. Upon being accepted into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, however, Bamber finally realized that his calling was on the screen, and after making his dramatic debut in the 1998 miniseries Horatio Hornblower, there was no looking back.In 2001, American television viewers caught their first glimpse of Bamber when he was cast in the Emmy Award-winning World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, with a handful of appearances in the U.K. war series Ultimate Force preceding his part in the 2003 series-starter Battlestar Galactica. Of course, Bamber would remain on roll-call when the series proper began the following year, with additional roles in Cold Case and Ghost Whisperer finding him equally effective outside of the sci-fi genre. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi