James William Van Der Beek Jr.

James William Van Der Beek Jr. best known as Dawson Leery in Dawson’s Creek in 1998, is an American television, film and stage actor. He was born on March 8, 1977, in Cheshire, Connecticut, USA to father Jim Van Der Beek, a cellular-phone company executive and mother Melinda Van Der Beek, a gymnastics studio owner and former Broadway dancer. James was a football player during his childhood, but due to injury, he had to stop from playing for a year. During this period, James’ interest landed into acting and was cast in the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of “Grease”. He was then engaged in local theatre before he made his professional acting debut in the off-Broadway production of “Finding the Sun”.
In 1995 James made his feature film debut in the teen film "Angus" portraying the role of Rick Sanford. After a year, he was given a very small supporting role in a romance drama “I Love You, I Love You Not”. His big break came in 1998 when he auditioned and won the lead role in the teen TV series “Dawson’s Creek”. The TV series was a smash hit worldwide and his on and off air chemistry with Katie Holmes was part of the reason of its success. James’ popularity quickly soared high and continues to do more projects and TV appearances even after the series. To name a few of his films: “Varsity Blues”(1999), “Texas Rangers”(2001), “The Rules of Attraction”(2002),” Sex, Power, Love & Politics”(2006), “Eye of the Beast”(2007), “Football Wives”(2007), and “Taken In Broad Dayligth”(2009).