Bio
Simon Baker is an Australian actor best known for his television roles as Nick Fallin in The Guardian (2001-2004) and as Patrick Jane in The Mentalist, from 2008-2015.
As Nick Fallin in The Guardian, Baker won widespread critical praise for his portrayal of a hardened corporate lawyer who was sentenced to work as a legal child advocate after being found guilty of drug possession. In the first season, Baker was recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series.
Baker was first recognised in 1992, when he received Australia's prestigious Logie award for Most Popular New Talent. Upon relocating to Los Angeles with his family, Baker was immediately cast in the Academy Award winning film L.A. Confidential (1997).
In 2000 he played an astronaut in Red Planet with Val Kilmer, Carrie Anne Moss and Benjamin Bratt. He played the male lead in the television series The Guardian for three seasons beginning in 2001, and also appeared in The Affair of the Necklace in 2001.
He played an altruistic hero in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead.
2007 saw Baker transition from a television star to big screen leading man with two diverse roles. In the critically acclaimed feature, The Devil Wears Prada, Baker starred opposite Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway as the dashing Christian Thompson.
In the feature film Something New, a romantic comedy starring opposite Sanaa Lathan, Baker played a working class landscaper who falls in love with an uptight professional black woman.
Baker first gained attention in the Academy Award winning film L.A. Confidential, following it up with a string of memorable performances in films such as An Affair of the Necklace, Red Planet, Sunset Strip, Judas Kiss, and the horror sequel The Ring 2, opposite Naomi Watts and Sissy Spacek.
Baker won great acclaim for his turn in the independent film Book of Love, which screened in competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
He was part of the all-star cast for Ang Lee's critically acclaimed Ride With the Devil, which screened at the 1999 Deauville Film Festival and was also a gala presentation at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.
He also had lead roles in two independent films. In The Lodger, he stars opposite Hope Davis, Alfred Molina, and Philip Baker Hall. The story follows a couple who rents out a room to a mysterious young man, who may or may not be guilty of a series of grisly neighbourhood murders. The film is based on Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 thriller of the same name.
In Not Forgotten, a psychological thriller, Simon plays a bank manager in a US/Mexico border town haunted by the death of his daughter. He and his wife approach a Latina soothsayer to find out what happened to the girl, but the old woman's visions threaten to dredge up secrets from their tortured pasts.
Baker's other film credits include Sex and Death 101 starring opposite Winona Ryder, and Land of the Dead, a critically acclaimed thriller co-starring Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo and Asia Argento; as well as the indies Restaurant and Love from Ground Zero.
A native of Australia, Baker now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children. In his spare time, he likes to surf.