Rob Archer grew up as an '80s kid, admiring the big-name slashers such as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.[1] However, at the age of twenty he opted to become a bodybuilder while all of his friends went off to college. His trainer's wife was a talent agent and insisted that he try out for acting. Archer recalled his first audition, "... it was a train-wreck. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever done. I remember afterwards getting into my car and I had tears streaming down my face, I was so embarrassed." After waiting a couple of months, Archer tried again and got bit parts in commercials. It was not until he got a role in Exit Wounds that he decided to take acting seriously. This was followed by years in films such as Bulletproof Monk, Red, Kick-Ass 2, RoboCop and Pixels as well as television shows such as Lost Girl, Mutant X, Alphas, XIII: The Series, Defiance, Beauty & the Beast and Warehouse 13.[2][1]
Archer began gaining significant exposure for his role as the Krampus in the anthologyhorror filmA Christmas Horror Story. He accepted the role as he felt the Krampus was an iconic creature and wanted to portray an icon on film. He described his portrayal as combining a "Marvel character with an animalistic nature".[3] Three years later, Archer would join the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp which is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[4]