Shawn Doyle began studying his craft almost from birth. Born in Newfoundland, Canada in 1968, Doyle's father was the founder of a small local theater group, enabling the burgeoning performer to observe the acting process nearly every day during his youth. He studied theater himself at York University, and worked as a fight choreographer early on, but Doyle eventually began landing roles on screen, first appearing in an episode of the series "Top Cops" (Fox, 1990-94) in 1993. Doyle would find no trouble maintaining his status as a working actor from that day forward, notably appearing in the thriller "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996) and the genre-bending drama "Frequency" (2000). After a two-episode appearance on "24" (Fox, 2001-2010), Doyle began co-starring on the acclaimed series "Big Love" (HBO, 2006-2011) in 2006. When his time with the series was over, he was prepared to relocate back to Canada, but the opportunity to star as chess playing mastermind Arkady Balagan on the series "Endgame" (Fox, 2011-12) enticed him to delay his plans. As the 2010s continued, Doyle would play recurring roles on shows like "Fargo" (AMC, 2014-) and "House of Cards" (Netflix, 2013-18). He joined the main cast of the series "The Expanse" (Syfy, 2015-) in 2015.