Stephen Moyer

Stephen Moyer, born Stephen John Emery on 11 October 1969, is an English actor and director, most famous for playing vampire Bill Compton on HBO’s True Blood. He grew up in Brentwood, Essex, attending St Martin’s comprehensive school in Hutton, and later trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). After graduating, he spent five years in theatre, working with companies like the National Theatre Wales, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Oxford Stage Company—including a touring production of Romeo and Juliet in which he played Romeo. His first film role came in 1997, when he landed the lead in Prince Valiant, an adaptation of the classic comic strip, alongside Ron Perlman and Katherine Heigl. In 2004, he co-starred with Rashida Jones in the transatlantic drama series NY-LON.

His big break arrived in 2007 when he was cast opposite Anna Paquin—who played his on-screen love interest, Sookie Stackhouse—in HBO’s True Blood, a show that ran for seven seasons. That same year, he became the first patron of Brentwood Theatre, supporting its “Reaching Out, Building On” campaign to fund backstage facilities, a project backed by True Blood fans worldwide.

On the personal side, Moyer has two children from a previous relationship (1999–2006) with journalist Lorien Haynes: a son, Billy (born 2000), and a daughter, Lilac (born 2002). He began dating Anna Paquin in 2007 while filming the True Blood pilot; they got engaged in 2009 and married on 21 August 2010 at a private home in Malibu, California. The couple have fraternal twins, Charlie and Poppy, born in 2012. Moyer has been open about his past struggles with alcoholism. In 2015, he said he had been sober for 14 years, tracing the addiction to his early days in British theatre and the influence of heroes like Peter O’Toole. He works with the CLARE Foundation, a California non-profit, to help others with recovery. He is also a supporter of West Ham United F.C.