Ben Schnetzer (born 8 February 1990)^[1] is an American actor. He was nominated for two British Independent Film Awards for his performance in the film Pride. His other films include The Book Thief, The Riot Club, and The Grizzlies.

Schnetzer is the son of actor Stephen Schnetzer, whose father had German ancestry, and actress Nancy Snyder. He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.^[2]

In 2010, Schnetzer appeared in an episode of Law & Order, the longest-running live-action scripted American primetime series and had a supporting role in the ABC series Happy Town.^[3]

As he began appearing in British films, Schnetzer was praised for his "superb mastery of accents".^[4] During his final year at Guildhall, he landed the role of Max Vandenburg in the film adaptation of The Book Thief (2013).^[5] The following year, he starred as activist Mark Ashton in the historical film Pride, for which he received critical acclaim and two BIFA nominations.^[6] That same year, he played British-Greek Oxford University student Dimitri Mitropoulos in The Riot Club.

Schnetzer starred as Brad Land alongside Nick Jonas in Goat, a 2016 film about college hazing. That same year, he starred as Ross in Punk's Dead as well as appearing in Warcraft and Snowden. He played British-Kenyan journalist Dan Eldon in the biopic The Journey Is the Destination.

Schnetzer returned to television in 2018 with a role as Marcus Goldman in the Epix miniseries adaptation of Joël Dicker's The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. He made his Broadway debut in The Nap at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.^[7] He had film roles in Entebbe, The Grizzlies, The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, and Saint Judy in 2018 as well as The Giant in 2019. Nell Meadow of RogerEbert.com called Schnetzer's performances "exceptional" in a 2020 review of The Grizzlies and praised ability to disappear into his roles in The Book Thief, Snowden, and Pride.^[8]

In 2020, Schnetzer was cast as protagonist Yorick Brown in the 2021 FX on Hulu adaptation of the post-apocalyptic comic Y: The Last Man.^[9] He has an upcoming role in the Netflix science fiction series The Three-Body Problem.

In September 2022, Schnetzer played Eli in the European premiere of Eureka Day at The Old Vic in London.^[10]

Schnetzer is in a relationship with Kate Hewitt, a theatre director from Newcastle upon Tyne. They have a daughter, born 2021.^[11]