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Everything to Know About Dimitri Leonidas, Who Plays Scorpus in Peacock's Those About to Die
Leonidas plays Scorpus, the charismatic chariot champion of Peacock’s new gladiator series.
We can’t wait to enter the gladiator's arena when Those About to Die premieres July 18 on Peacock. Featuring Anthony Hopkins as Roman ruler Vespasian, the new Peacock-original series comes from the fertile creative minds of Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and blockbuster film director Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day), and taps the grandeur of ancient Rome as the epic backdrop for a gladiator-themed tale that entwines the lives of characters both powerful and impoverished.
Alongside Hopkins’ imperial Caesar’s role, one of the biggest parts to play in Those About to Die will be that of Scorpus, the swashbuckling and hugely famous chariot racer played by English actor Dimitri Leonidas. In the bread-and-circuses crazed world of Those About to Die, he’s a real crowd-pleaser — you know, the kind of guy who can strap up and ride to effortless victory at a short moment’s notice… even after a debauched night (and hung-over morning!) of brothel-slumming and buckets of wine.
Want to learn more about Dimitri Leonidas before the gates open on Peacock’s newest series? Then keep on scrolling!
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Who is Those About to Die star Dimitri Leonidas?
Since embarking on a screen career in the early 2000s, Leonidas, now 36, has collected an eclectic project résumé that’s taken him into some pretty high-profile star territory. Perhaps it’s in his blood: The London-born actor, whose parenting ancestry traces to both Wales and Cyprus, is just part of an entire family bitten by the acting bug, including older sister Stephanie Leonidas (MirrorMask, SYFY’s Defiance) and younger sibling Georgina Leonidas (who played Katie Bell in the Harry Potter film franchise).
Dimitri cut his acting teeth through a string of episodic appearances on 2000s-era British series, including doctor-drama Casualty, police procedural The Bill, and the hard-knocks docuseries Banged Up Abroad. By 2011, he’d snagged a Doctor Who appearance (as the human captive to the Minotaur in Season 6), before George Clooney tapped his talents to play Private Sam Epstein in the 2014 Clooney-directed war drama The Monuments Men.
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Most recently, Leonidas has been spotted in the war miniseries Masters of the Air, as well as in sci-fi space as ace trader Hober Mallow — the well-connected influencer who casts a long galactic shadow over Season 2 of the Isaac Asimov-inspired small-screen series Foundation. On Those About to Die, Leonidas oozes oodles of charisma and confident braggadocio as Scorpus, the celebrity chariot racer whose wealth and fame make him a prized target of the empire’s scheming politicians — figures he scorns as a bona fide athletic superstar; the kind of ancient A-lister who hardly needs extra political favors to remain popular with the masses on his own terms.
Catch Dimitri Leonidas alongside Anothony Hopkins in Those About to Die, premiering July 18 exclusively on Peacock.
