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Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor and former male fashion model. He is most known for his television roles as Eric Brady in Days of Our Lives, Jason Teague in Smallville, and, most recently, Dean Winchester on the CW series Supernatural.

Biography

Early life

Ackles was born in Dallas, Texas to Alan Roger Ackles, an actor, and Donna Joan Shaffer. Ackles has an older brother, Joshua, and a younger sister, Mackenzie. He has Irish, English and Scottish ancestry. His parents named him Jensen because it was uncommon. He graduated from Dartmouth Elementary School in 1990, Apollo Junior High School in 1993, and Lloyd V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas in 1996. Ackles played baseball and lacrosse in high school. He planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist before moving to Los Angeles to become an actor.

Career

After modeling off and on as a young child, Ackles began to concentrate on an acting career in 1996. He appeared in several guest roles on Mr. Rhodes, Sweet Valley High, and Cybill before joining the cast of the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a 1998 Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer and went on to be nominated three times (in 1998, 1999, and 2000) for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Days of Our Lives.

Ackles departed Days of Our Lives in 2000 and went on to appear in the mini-series Blonde about the life of Marilyn Monroe. He also auditioned for the role as the young Clark Kent on Smallville, but it was offered to actor Tom Welling instead. After failing to land the part, he appeared in a guest role on the James Cameron television series Dark Angel on Fox during its first season in 2001 as Ben/X5-493, the psychopathic, serial killer "brother" of the main character Max (played by Jessica Alba). His character died after just one episode, but Ackles returned to the show as a series regular in the second season as Ben's twin, Alec/X5-494. He remained with the show until its cancellation in 2002.

Ackles worked steadily throughout 2003. He joined the cast of the WB's hit show, Dawson's Creek during the final season, playing C.J., Jen Lindley's lover. Afterward, Ackles filmed several episodes of the unaired series Still Life for Fox before it was abruptly dropped. He also had a small role in the 2004 film The Plight of Clownana. Jensen was the producer's first choice to play Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling, but Ackles returned to Vancouver (where Dark Angel was filmed) in 2004 to become a regular on Smallville instead, playing Jason Teague, the romantic interest of Lana Lang, played by Kristin Kreuk. He also had a lead role in the 2005 film Devour, where his father also had a role.

Most recently, Ackles joined the cast of the WB horror series Supernatural in 2005, where he co-stars as Dean Winchester. Dean teams with his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) to road-trip across the country investigating the paranormal while searching for their missing father, John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The second season was picked up by The CW in 2006 for the 2006-2007 television season.

Jensen will also appear in the 2007 film Ten Inch Hero, in which he will play the role of Priestly.

Filmography

References

External links

• Jensen Ackles cast bio on The CW
• Jensen Ross Ackles Unlimited - Fansite, endorsed by Ackles

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