Samuel has participated in sixty-eight exhibitions, including seven solo exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collection of the North Dakota Museum of Art and featured in the book, Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay. Samuel grew up on the western prairie of the Red River Valley, outside of Breckenridge, Minnesota. Before earning his MA and MFA from the University of Iowa in 2005, he apprenticed with Richard Bresnahan, studied ceramic design at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen, Denmark, and worked in Japan as a studio guest of Koie Ryoji. He lives in St. Joseph, Minnesota, with his wife, Anne, and their four children, Harriet, Jesse, Ingrid, and Francine.