Max Benitz Biography

Max Benitz (born 14 March 1985) is an English writer, journalist, and former film and TV actor.

Education

Max Benitz was born in London. He attended Harrow School from 1998 to 2003, where he appeared in student productions of As You Like It, Hamlet, The Pirates of Penzance, and Me and My Girl. He completed two weeks' work experience as a filing clerk at the offices of The Spectator magazine. After seeing his performance as Midshipman Calamy in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Boris Johnson, then editor of the Spectator, wrote that Benitz had shown "much the same dash and dispatch [as Calamy] in rescuing my Toyota from the car pound."

Benitz went on to study history at the University of Edinburgh. As an undergraduate, he completed a nine-month programme at University of Calcutta, after which in 2007 he embarked, with friend and fellow Edinburgh University student George Vlasto, in a journey from Calcutta to London by car. The trip, undertaken in an Hindustan Ambassador automobile, took ten weeks, covered 9,000 miles in a route that passed through India, Pakistan, China, Central Asia, Turkey, and Europe, and raised more than 12,000 for the charities Future Hope, in Calcutta, and Royal Marsden Hospital, in London, on behalf of disadvantaged children.

Acting career

Max Benitz is best known for his role as Midshipman Peter Calamy in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World by director Peter Weir, adapted from the Aubrey-Maturin historical novels of Patrick O'Brian.

In 2005, Benitz had a small role as Huband in a TV movie version of Thomas Hughes's novel Tom Brown's Schooldays, which also starred Stephen Fry and Alex Pettyfer. In 2006, he also appeared in the TV series Trial & Retribution, featuring in episode X, "Sins of the Father," as James Harrogate.

Journalism

In 2008-2009, Benitz worked as an unpaid journalist for the MOBY Group and as a freelancer in Afghanistan, covering the activities of the British Army in that country. His book, Six Months Without Sundays: The Scots Guards in Afghanistan, was published by Birlinn in November 2011.

Personal life

Benitz is currently in a relationship with actress Olga Kurylenko. They have one son together, who was born on 3 October 2015.