Mark Pellegrino: Gifted Actor or Spawn of Satan?

You may not know his name, but I'm betting you've seen his face. This is actor Mark Pellegrino.

He looks innocent enough. Even kind of cute! But he's that guy, the guy who always plays the bad guy! After seeing him in his most recent role as Jeremy on NBC's Revolution, I am asking myself – why is this guy always so evil? Can he really be that good at playing bad or could he actually be the devil himself? Let's examine the evidence.

Jeremy reveals Miles' secret past to his fellow travelers. Bad, Jeremy! Bad!

Paul Bennett, druggie and wife beater. All around bad dude.

When I first saw Pellegrino he was playing Paul Bennett, Rita's abusive and drug-addicted ex-husband on Dexter. Just look at him. Doesn't he just look slimy?

True, Dexter is a show about a serial killer working for Miami Police Department, but Dex isn't the bad guy, no sir! Dexter never smacked sweet Rita around like good ol' Paul, so make no mistake, Paul Bennett was the bad guy in town. As soon as Dexter caught wind that Paul might be on to his little late night mutilation hobby he had to go and, frankly, I didn't miss him. 

Ex-convict and killer Dick Hickock. Baaaad dude.

Pellegrino has been around for a while - since 1987, according to IMDb. He's played all kinds of antagonists: a Fulcrum agent on Chuck, a criminal on The Closer, he even took a turn as some kind of nasty on Grimm. He's even taken his essence of evil onto the big screen, playing ex-con and murderer Dick Hickock in Capote.

Granted, Phillip Seymour Hoffman made Capote worth watching with his Oscar-winning performance, but Clifton Collins, Jr., and Pellegrino also shone in their takes on the cold-blooded murderers. 

Bishop. Cop. Vampire. Nasty, nasty dude.

When next I saw Pellegrino it was as Bishop, head of a Boston vampire clan on SyFy series Being Human. Bishop was a nasty mo-fo. He may look like a lieutenant on the Boston Police Force, but he'd rather eat you than serve or protect you. He spends more time covering up the crimes his vampire brethren commit than solving any real cases. When he kidnaps Sam, one of our heroes and the nicest werewolf you ever will meet, he signs his death warrant. Good riddance, because Bishop is just pure evil. I mean, could a man get any worse?

Well how about the devil himself? That's right. Next Pellegrino played Lucifer on one of my favorite shows, Supernatural! The actual devil. 

Ummmm, hello. This is Lucifer. Do I really have to explain how bad this dude is??? Bad, y'all!

Lucifer spent most of season 7 tormenting one of Supernatural's heroic Winchester brothers, Sam. Pellegrino was apparently in talks to play Castiel, the other Winchester, Dean's, fallen angel bestie, but casting agents saw the evil lurking in Pellegrino's eyes and decided to ask him to portray the Dark Lord himself.

The only time I've ever seen Mark Pellegrino play anything close to a good guy is when he played Jacob on Lost. And anyone who has watched Lost can tell you that, while Jacob was the protector of the island, it would be difficult to call him a "good guy." 

Jacob on Lost. Even though he's good, he's still kind of bad.

For five seasons on Lost, Jacob was just a faceless character with an agenda just as hidden. We had no idea why he did the things he did, but Ben – definitely a bad guy – kept doing all of these terrible things like kidnapping our Losties, threatening to kill Kate, Sawyer and numerous others, and just creating general mayhem all because "Jacob told him to."

When we did meet Jacob, it was still kinda hard to like him. He seemed cold. And he had a nasty habit of showing up at bad times, to nudge characters in certain directions, sometimes by doing bad things, like distracting Sayid so he was too late to save his wife from the car crash that killed her. 

The evidence is mounting up! Maybe we have been fooled for years and the actors we revere, the big names like Depp, Pacino, Nicholson and Hoffman are not the greatest actors the world has known, and instead Mark Pellegrino is the world's greatest actor, convincing us that he is not evil incarnate but just a regular guy. It could happen! Or is he maybe a dark force bent on destroying humanity like the characters he plays so well...

Could be. IMDb says he's a teacher and he's married with a kid. It's hard to imagine the devil being married with a kid. Even still, I won't be inviting this guy to dinner anytime soon. Frankly, he scares the shit outta me!