Stephen Adam Amell (born May 8, 1981 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian actor best known for playing Oliver Queen / Green Arrow across The CW's Arrowverse, starting on Arrow in 2012. He's the older cousin of fellow actor (and Arrowverse co-star) Robbie Amell.
Selected Filmography:
- Queer as Folk (US) (2004) as Spinning Instructor
- Dante's Cove (2005) as Adam
- Blue Mountain State (2010) as Travis McKenna
- 90210 (2011) as Jim
- The Vampire Diaries (2011) as Brady
- Hung (2011) as Jason
- Arrowverse (2012 — 2020) as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow:
- Arrow (2012 — 2020)
- The Flash (2014, 2015)
- Flash vs. Arrow (2014)
- Vixen (voice; 2015)
- Heroes Join Forces (2015)
- Legends of Tomorrow (2016)
- Invasion! (2016)
- Crisis on Earth-X (2017)
- Elseworlds (2018))
- Crisis On Infinite Earths (2019 - 2020)
- New Girl (2011 — 2012) as Kyle
- Private Practice (2012) as Scott Becker
- WWE (2015) as himself:note
- WWE Raw (2015)
- SummerSlam (2015)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) as Casey Jones
- Ring of Honor (2017) as himself:note
- Code 8 (2019) as Garrett Kent
- Heels (2021) as Jack Spade
Video Games
- Green Arrows' "Arrow" skin in Injustice: Gods Among Us, the voice and appearance of which which takes after his Arrowverse appearance.
Associated Tropes:
- Actor/Role Confusion: More than a few fans have mistaken him for the Green Arrow in real life and sought him out for fights. One opted to headbutt him in front of his family
. - Bromance: His two on-screen best friends in the Arrowverse (Colin Donnell and Grant Gustin) are also his best friends in real life.
- The Cast Showoff: He does the Salmon Ladder in Real Life, so the showrunners of Arrow (and probably Stephen himself) decided to showcase it. He took a turn for a celebrity edition of American Ninja Warrior and easily passed the first stage, the commentators pointing out his incredible build. Amell wasn't done, and went on to do a salmon ladder obstacle in a different course as a tribute to the fans.
- Creator Backlash: Amell has displayed nothing but Undying Loyalty to Arrow through thick and thin, but has openly expressed his opinions on how the network and DC has marketed not only Arrow but also The Flash.note He has also poked fun at the quality of Arrow
Seasons 3-4. - Fake Nationality: Most of his known roles are Fake Americans.
- Mr. Fanservice: He provides the page image for Live-Action TV because he has lots of shirtless scenes in Arrow and he is shirtless in the poster.
- No Stunt Double: He does most of his stunts (See The Cast Showoff above).
- Promoted Fanboy: He's a huge wrestling fan, so being able to do that in SummerSlam 2015 really pleases him. He won a Slammy Award for his match against Stardust. Through the resulting friendship with Cody, he's started popping up on Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks' Being the Elite YouTube series as an avid supporter of the Bullet Club, who Cody recently joined. Before the end of the year, Cody introduced him in ROH as the newest member of the Bullet Club.
- Amell would later appear at Cody's own wrestling show, All In, to have a match against Christopher Daniels. While celebrity wrestling matches can often end up an embarrassing farce, or at best are entirely dependent on the wrestler being good enough to carry their opponent and make it look like a competitive contest, Amell put on an amazing, almost professional-level performance, leading some people to observe that if he hadn't become an actor he would have been a natural born wrestler.
- Amell would later appear at Cody's own wrestling show, All In
- Real-Life Relative: His cousin Robbie Amell plays Ronnie Raymond in the Arrowverse, while Stephen's wife Cassandra Jean played Nora Fries in the Elseworlds crossover event.
- Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: As he was between seasons of Arrow while filming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, his rendition of Casey Jones lacks the character's iconic long hair.
- What Could Have Been:
- Apparently, he auditioned for Tough Enough but didn't make the cut.
- He was the second choice after Liam McIntyre in replacing Andy Whitfield as the titular Spartacus.
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: He’s considerably cut back on interactions with fans in real life and on social media over the years after some Real Person Shipping repeatedly crossed the line.
