Benton has also starred in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road as mathematics teacher Daniel "Chalky" Chalk from 2011 to 2014.
Benton was born in Guisborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, and attended Sarah Metcalfe Comprehensive School and, later, Stockton Billingham Technical College.
Benton played the role of the bank manager in a string of eight television commercials for the Nationwide Building Society, directed by Armando Iannucci, shown from 2004 to 2010.
Other roles have included Connor in Afterlife (2005), Dad in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Hustle (2010), and Farmer Finch in the BBC's Land Girls.
Benton joined the cast of BBC drama Waterloo Road in its seventh series[2] as Daniel 'Chalky' Chalk, a maths teacher, until 6 March 2013.
On BBC Radio 4, Benton starred as the optimistic title character Harvey Easter in Mr Blue Sky, written by Andrew Collins and broadcast in May and June 2011.
In July 2012, it was announced that Benton would star as Edna Turnblad in the 2013 UK tour of Hairspray the Musical, starting in February 2013 and finishing in September 2013.
[3] In 2015, Benton appeared as Police Constable Walt Everett in the BBC daytime series Father Brown, episode 3.12 "The Standing Stones".
[4] In 2016, UK progressive rock band Gandalf's Fist announced that Benton would voice several characters on their album The Clockwork Fable.