Joseph Daniel Turner Mawle was born on March 21, 1974, in Oxford, England. He grew up on a farm outside Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, in a Victorian manor house, with his parents and two siblings. His family has a long history of farming in Warwickshire, with nine generations of farming in the area.
Mawle was diagnosed with severe dyslexia at the age of 13, which led to him attending a boarding school for special needs from the age of 13 to 16. He then left school at 16 to pursue a career in acting, but contracted labyrinthitis, leaving him 70% hearing-impaired in the upper register and with tinnitus.
Despite these challenges, Mawle persevered and persuaded the director of the local college to let him study for a BTEC in performing arts while doing various jobs such as a fitness instructor and dishwasher. He also acted for the Box Clever Theatre Company and in his own production of Solo Hamlet. He won a scholarship to study at the Bristol Old Vic's theatre school.
Mawle graduated from the theatre school in 2002 and went on to appear in various productions, including Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, and Antony and Cleopatra. His breakthrough role came in 2006 when he played the lead role in the television film Soundproof, for which he was nominated for the RTS Breakthrough on Screen Award.
Mawle has since appeared in numerous British television productions, including Dunkirk, Persuasion, Clapham Junction, and Foyle's War. He has also starred in several films, including The Passion, Nineteen Eighty, Heartless, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
In addition to his acting career, Mawle has also been involved in music, featuring in the music video for The Horrible Crowes' debut single "Behold the Hurricane" in 2011.
Mawle is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjen Stark in Game of Thrones, Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine in Ripper Street, Firebrace in Birdsong, Jesus Christ in The Passion, and Odysseus in Troy: Fall of a City.
