Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an
American actor. He is notable for his
television roles as
Eric Brady in
Days of our Lives which earned him several
Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as
Alec/X5-494 in
Dark Angel, and as
Jason Teague in
Smallville. Ackles appears as
Dean Winchester on the CW television series
Supernatural starring alongside
Jared Padalecki.
Early life
Ackles was born in
Dallas, Texas, the son of Donna Joan (née Shaffer) and Alan Roger Ackles, an actor.
Ackles has a brother, Joshua, who's three years older, and sister, Mackenzie, who's seven years younger. He is of English, Irish and
Scottish ancestry.
He had planned to study
sports medicine at
Texas Tech University and become a
physical therapist but instead moved to
Los Angeles to start his acting career.
Career
After modeling on and off since the age of 4, 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.
