JAMES VAN DER BEEK

'James Van Der Beek' (born March 8, 1977 in Cheshire, Connecticut) is an American television and film actor, best known for his role as Dawson Leery in ''Dawson's Creek''.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Selected filmography

Awards

Interviews

External links

Biography

Early life

James William Van Der Beek, Jr. was born in Cheshire, Connecticut. Van Der Beek attended Cheshire Academy (a private school), where he played football, although he suffered a concussion which prevented him from continuing his interest in the game. He was identified as being dyslexic during his childhood, but became an honors student in his school.
He began acting at age 13, playing Danny Zuko in his school's performance of ''Grease''. Van Der Beek began auditioning in New York City at age 16 and appeared in the off-Broadway play ''Finding the Sun'', as well as in the play ''Shenandoah'' in 1994. Later, he was given a scholarship to attend Drew University, where he was an English major and participated in an all-male a cappella group, 36 Madison Avenue.

Career

Van Der Beek started his film career with a supporting role in the teen-oriented movie ''Angus'' in 1995. However, he did not gain wide renown until 1998, when he was cast in the lead role of Dawson Leery on the television series Dawson's Creek. He stopped attending college in order to film the series, but plans to return in order to complete his degree.
The series was a big success among its intended teenage audience, and Van Der Beek became a well known teen idol. His on and off air chemistry with Katie Holmes was one of the main reasons for the success of the show.
In 1999, Van Der Beek took a break from Dawson's Creek and starred in the lead role in the film ''Varsity Blues'', as a player on a Texas high school football team. The film was successful, grossing $52 million and Van Der Beek won an MTV award for his lead performance, though the overstated Texas accent he occupied in the film earned him much ridicule in popular culture. He subsequently appeared in "Texas Rangers" and ''The Rules of Attraction'', and also appeared in an episode of Still Standing.
In 1998, Van Der Beek was chosen as one of People Magazine's "50 most beautiful people in the world".
Van Der Beek also played a cameo role on Scary Movie.
Presently, Van Der Beek is working on 2 projects, ''Eye of the Beast'' and ''Zoe'' (2006) with Eliza Dushku.
In early 2007, he appeared as Tobias Henkel/Raphael, the Unsub, on two episodes of Criminal Minds.

Personal life

Van Der Beek lives primarily in Los Angeles. He married actress Heather McComb in July 2003; both are attendees of the Kabbalah Center. There have been hints about his recording an album, spurred by his singing the original "Born To Lose" on an episode of Dawson's creek.
He enjoys playing the guitar and participating in sports; his favorite football team is the Green Bay Packers.

Selected filmography

'Year'	'Title'	'Role'	'Other notes'
1986	''Castle in the Sky''	Pazu (voice)	2003 English dubbed version
1999	''Varsity Blues''	Jonathon 'Mox' Moxon
2001	''Texas Rangers''	Lincoln Rogers Dunnison
2001	''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back''	Himself
2002	''The Rules of Attraction''	Sean Bateman
2006	''The Plague''	Tom Russel

Awards

★ 1999 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance (for ''Varsity Blues'')

★ 2001 MTV Movie Award for Best Cameo in a Movie (for ''Scary Movie'')
He was also nominated for the 2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor - Newcomer (for ''Varsity Blues'')

Interviews

★ Collection of interviews at :James Van Der Beek Online

External links

★

★ All Movie Guide entry for James Van Der Beek