Rhys Wakefield (born 20 November 1988) is an Australian actor and director. Wakefield starred in season 3 of HBO's True Detective as Freddy Burns after starting out on the Australian TV series Home and Away where he starred in 363 episodes. Wakefield has played the lead in James Cameron's thriller Sanctum, the Polite Leader in The Purge franchise and was nominated for Best Actor in a Feature Film by the Australian Film Institute and the Film Critics Circle of Australia for his performance in The Black Balloon. Wakefield's first directed feature film, Berserk, was released in American cinemas on 5 April 2019. It stars Nick Cannon, James Roday, Nora Arnezeder, Erin Moriarty, Jack Falahee and was executive produced by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones.
Wakefield was born in Cairns, Queensland, to a medical standards officer mother and a father who serves in the navy. Before appearing as Lucas in Home and Away, Wakefield had been acting for more than six years. He attended classes at McDonald College of Performing Arts where he won the acting scholarship in 2003, during which time he performed in numerous Shakespeare festivals, working with both Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet. Wakefield graduated in 2006.