Benz Antoine is a Haitian-Canadian actor whose career has now thrived for more than 25 years. Among the major roles he has played during that time are the voice of Baptiste in Overwatch (widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made) and appearances in films such as Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Romeo Must Die, Four Brothers, and the innovative Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There. On TV, his starring role as Tyler Joseph in the French-Canadian police drama 19-2 saw him nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. His most recent roles include the crime thriller movie Crisis, episodes of Diggstown and Hunter & Rex and reprising his Baptiste role for Overwatch 2.

Antoine was born in Montreal in 1972. Able to speak three languages, he originally wanted to become a rapper. He even formed a rap group, Da Freshmen, who landed a deal with Universal Records. Ultimately, however, a music career never happened. But when he happened to accompany his girlfriend to an acting audition for a corporate video, he landed a role for himself. He was bitten by the acting bug and has never looked back.

Antoine’s first role came in 1995 when he appeared in an episode of Sirens. The next few years were spent auditioning and landing one-off roles in various films and series before getting his break in 2000 with a role in Romeo Must Die, a 2000 martial arts film that became a box-office hit and also launched the career of Jet Li. He also had success with recurring roles in series such as Dice and 2 freres in 2001. Overwatch came along in 2016 to showcase another of Antoine’s many talents.