Benjamin Ayres
Benjamin Ayres
Mr. William Tanner
Benjamin Ayres is better known as Mr. William Tanner, the snarky history teacher and football coach of Mystic Falls High School on The Vampire Diaries. Mr. Tanner takes pride in his teaching methods, which often include embarrassing his students. He particularly dislikes Jeremy, on whom he keeps a detailed file, and Stefan, who proves to know more about the town’s history then he does. After begrudgingly allowing Stefan to take part on the football team, Mr. Tanner realizes Stefan will be an asset to have. He slowly changes his attitude towards his new football player and student. After a three episode run, Mr. Tanner is bitten and killed by Damon to prove a point to Stefan. Alaric Saltzman steps in as his replacement.
Benjamin Ayres was born on January 19th, 1977 in Kamloops, British Columbia. Showing interest in story-telling and film making from a very young age, his parents purchased him a VCR camcorder. He produced several short films by the age of twelve. During high school Benjamin took part in every play produced and by grade twelve was participating in a course for stage/film directing and video editing. After finishing school, Ben decided to spend some time traveling on his own. He moved to Vancouver at twenty-two years old where he did a two-year study at Lyric School of Acting in Gastown. He then hired an agent and began his career in the TV/Film industry. He is best known for his portrayal of Casper Jesperson in the hit CBC Television series, "J-Pod". In 2008 he took home a Leo Award for “Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series” for his popular role on "J-Pod".
Ben started out his career with guest star roles on TV series such as: Jeremiah, "Stargate, SG-1", "The Collector", "Da Vinci’s Inquest" and "Still Life". He went on to land his first roles in independent films: "Summer and Desolation". Then taking a break from his on-screen work, Ben returned to his theater roots. He landed parts in ten plays over the course of two years. Eric Bogosian's: "Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll" and Raul Sanchez Inglis': "In the Eyes of God" being his two most popular productions.
After putting together a sketch comedy group who performed live on CBC's special, Sketch With Kevin McDonald (Kids in the Hall), Benjamin returned to television portraying Agent Bartlett, a recurring role on the WB's prime time series, "Smallville". Soon after, he was cast alongside Jessica Alba in the film, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer". Benjamin and Jessica reunited while working on, "Good Luck Chuck".
Benjamin's time has recently been spent shooting a pilot for Fox's Mistresses, a supporting role in the film, "Lullaby for Pi", and appearing on the CW's hit series, "The Vampire Diaries". Aside from film, he enjoys being trained in Muay Thai kickboxing and is currently recording an album.
Written By: Ashley
@TVD_Tweets
Edited By: Sri
@ TheSnappyDragon
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Ayres
http://http://shows.ctv.ca/DanForMayor/Bios/Benjamin-Ayres.aspx
