Giacomo Baessato

"Working on this show was an absolute blast! (...) I got to ride a horse – which was so much fun – and speak in a British accent. The fans of this show are incredible and showed a lot of love for my character."

- Giacomo Baessato src

Giacomo Baessato is the Canadian actor who portrays Grif on ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Biography
Giacomo Baessato hails from Vancouver, Canada. He is of Italian and Irish descent, and has an older brother named Max.

He started acting when he was eight years old, when his parents enrolled him in acting classes at a local Film/TV school. He made his acting debut in an episode of the American-Canadian Disney Channel series So Weird in 1999, while first film role was a minor part in the 2000 horror comedy film Scary Movie. He later voiced the character Enzo Matrix on the Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure television series ReBoot.

At thirteen years old, he landed a part in the 2003 science fiction horror film Dreamcatcher, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the screenplays for Raiders of the Lost Ark and three of the Star Wars movies. After graduating high school, Giacomo went on to train at the Circle in the Square Theater School in New York City. He lived in New York for three years, doing mostly stage work.

He has appeared in several famous TV shows over the years, including Motive, The X Files,  Continuum, The 100, Supernatural, Arrow, The Whispers, Wayward Pines,Travelers and Fringe. He also played the recurring roles of Shane Slater on the supernatural drama television series The Returned and Officer Kearn in the crime drama television series Gracepoint.

Trivia

 * Before landing the role as Grif, Giacomo played Rip Van Winkle in a deleted scene from "Nasty Habits".