Mason Thames

Mason Thames is an American actor who gained international attention for playing Finney Blake in Scott Derrickson’s 2021 supernatural horror film The Black Phone. Born on July 10, 2007, Thames had worked in television before taking the leading role in the film, which was adapted from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name. The Black Phone centers on Finney, a shy Denver-area boy abducted by a masked serial killer known as the Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke. Imprisoned in a soundproof basement, Finney begins receiving calls on a disconnected black telephone from the killer’s previous victims. Thames’s performance is central to the film’s tension because Finney is not written as a conventional action hero. He is bullied at school, lives with an abusive alcoholic father, and worries about his younger sister Gwen, portrayed by Madeleine McGraw. His character’s survival depends on listening to information conveyed by the dead boys, learning practical skills from them, and finding the resolve to confront the Grabber. The film became a commercial success for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, earning more than $160 million worldwide on a reported production budget of about $18 million. Its success made Thames a prominent young performer in contemporary horror cinema. Before The Black Phone, Thames appeared in the first season of the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. He played a young version of Danny Stevens, a character connected to astronauts Gordo and Tracy Stevens in the show’s alternate-history account of the space race. He also appeared in the television series Evel, based on the life of stunt performer Evel Knievel, although the program was not ultimately released. Thames later joined the cast of incoming studio projects, including Universal’s live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. He was cast as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the Viking teenager originally voiced by Jay Baruchel in DreamWorks Animation’s 2010 film. The live-action version is written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who co-directed the original animated film and directed its two sequels. Nico Parker was cast as Astrid, Hiccup’s fellow Dragon Training student and eventual partner. He also appeared in the 2024 coming-of-age comedy Incoming, released by Netflix. In that film, he played Benj Nielsen, one of four teenage friends trying to navigate their first high-school party. The cast also included Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro, Isabella Ferreira, and Bardia Seiri. Thames’s career has therefore moved between horror, television drama, teen comedy, and a major fantasy franchise, with The Black Phone remaining the performance most closely associated with his early rise.