Lew Temple

Nearly thirty years since his first on-screen appearance, award-winning actor and voice artist Lew Temple’s reputation is still growing. To television fans, he is perhaps best known for playing Axel, a zombie apocalypse survivor in the third season of The Walking Dead, an award-winning season that went down a storm with fans and critics alike. More recently, he appeared as Cal, the diner manager in Waitress, a low-budget film that won praise from critics, made nearly 20 times its budget, and spawned a major musical that now runs on Broadway and in the West End.

Before becoming an actor, Temple was actually established in the world of baseball, working as a scout for the New York Mets and Houston Astros. In his mid-twenties, he turned to acting, and his film career began in 1994 with a part in Angels in the Outfield, a comedy that starred the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Adrien Brody. He spent the rest of the decade making one-off appearances and voicing English versions of Japanese series. Over the years, he appeared in four episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, playing a different character every time.

In 2002, his career was put on hold when he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. He survived and returned to work within a year. In 2005, he was cast as Locus Fender in Domino, an action film starring Kiera Knightley and Mickey Rourke. Over the next few years, he turned to horror, appearing in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Rob Zombie’s award-winning Zombie. In 2015, the Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival presented him with a much-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.