Samantha Mathis
A native of New York City, actress Samantha Mathis has crafted a distinguished career in television, film and theatre.
Samantha can be most recently seen in Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023), the Paramount+ follow-up to Pet Sematary (2019), based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel. Samantha will also feature in the upcoming MGM film The Georgetown Project opposite Chloë Bailey, Russell Crowe, Sam Worthington, and Adam Goldberg. Additionally on the film side, Samantha starred in Miranda Bailey’s Being Frank with Jim Gaffigan and Anna Gunn, which premiered at SXSW in 2018; The Clovehitch Killer (2018) with Charlie Plummer and Dylan McDermott, distributed by IFC Midnight; and Boaz Yakin’s Boarding School (2018), a thriller horror film released by Momentum Pictures.
On the small screen, Samantha most recently starred in seasons four and five of the Showtime hit series Billions, where she played Sara Hammon, the new COO of Taylor Mason Capital. In 2019 Mathis starred in Chelsea Stardust’s thriller All That We Destroy, which was included in Jason Blum’s anthology series on Hulu. Prior to that, Mathis was a series regular on seasons two and three of Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain for FX. Her other TV credits include CBS’s The Good Wife, NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, CBS’s Under the Dome, HBO’s critically-acclaimed Curb Your Enthusiasm, an arc on Grey’s Anatomy, the highly acclaimed TNT miniseries Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King and TNT’s Salem’s Lot.
Samantha was also seen in the series First Years, the telefilm Collected Stories for PBS, the critically lauded miniseries The Mists of Avalon, the Hallmark Channel movie A Stranger’s Heart (2007), and Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom’s For One More Day. In 2011, Samantha was seen in the Lifetime Network TV movie Unanswered Prayers based on the Garth Brooks song of the same name.
Samantha burst onto the film scene in Pump Up The Volume (1990) opposite Christian Slater, followed by The Thing Called Love (1993) alongside River Phoenix. Additional film credits include This is My Life (1992), The Music of Chance (1993), LITTLE WOMEN (1994), The American President (1995), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Jack and Sarah (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Attraction (2000), The Simian Line (2000), American Psycho (2000), The Punisher (2004), and Touched (2005). Samantha’s indie film credits include Believe in Me (2006), Local Color (2006), The New Daughter (2006) opposite Kevin Costner, Order of Chaos (2010), Lebanon, PA (2010), and playing alongside Kathy Baker, Clea DuVall and Bradley Whitford in Fathers and Sons (2005). She was also seen in Camilla Dickinson (2012), based on the Madeline L’Engle novel, Camilla, as well as Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012) based on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. She also starred in Alan Rudolph’s Ray Meets Helen (2017) with Keith Carradine and Sondra Locke and appeared in the critically acclaimed feature American Pastoral (2016) by Ewan McGregor.
On stage, Mathis starred in Second Stage Theater’s Make Believe, written by Bess Wohl and directed by Michael Greif. In 2022, she starred in Whisper House, an off-Broadway musical ghost story with music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award winner Duncan Sheik, and book and lyrics by Obie winner and Tony nominee Kyle Jarrow.
Mathis made her Broadway debut in 2002 in Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All the Luck opposite Chris O’Donnell. She has also made stage appearances starring opposite Tony Award-winner Linda Lavin in Collected Stories at the Geffen Playhouse and Fortinbras at the Signature Theater in New York. She was most recently seen on Broadway in Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations alongside Jane Fonda and Colin Hanks, a role she reprised in Los Angeles with Fonda at the Ahmanson Theater in 2011.
Samantha is as enthusiastic about her philanthropic work as she is with her acting and entrepreneurial roles. She previously served two terms as Actor/Performer Vice President of SAG-AFTRA. Her work with Amnesty International on their Stop the Violence Campaign Against Women has done much to stop the femicide in Guatemala. She is also a longtime supporter of animal rights.