Jensen Ackles Biography

Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles in television as Eric Brady in Days of Our Lives, which earned him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as well as Alec/X5-494 in Dark Angel and Jason Teague in Smallville. He also starred as the lead in the box office success My Bloody Valentine 3D and portrayed Jason Todd in the popular animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Ackles currently stars as Dean Winchester on the CW series Supernatural.

Early life

Ackles was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Donna Joan (ne Shaffer) and Alan Roger Ackles, an actor. He has a brother, Josh, and a sister, Mackenzie. Ackles had planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and to become a physical therapist, but instead moved to Los Angeles to start his acting career.

Career

After modelling 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.

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 of the young Clark Kent on Smallville, a role offered to actor Tom Welling instead. Next he appeared in a guest role on the James Cameron television series Dark Angel on Fox in 2001 as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452 (played by Jessica Alba). His character died in the episode, but Ackles returned to the show as a series regular in the second season as Ben's sane clone, 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 its final season, playing CJ, 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 short film The Plight of Clownana. Ackles was the producer's first choice to play Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling, Ackles turned down the role, which was then offered to Eric Christian Olsen and the character's name was changed to "Jensen" because the producers of Tru Calling liked Ackles' name. Ackles returned to Vancouver (where Dark Angel was filmed) in 2004 to become a regular on Smallville playing the assistant football coach Jason Teague, who was also the newest romantic interest for Lana Lang (played by Kristin Kreuk). He also had a lead role in the 2005 film Devour in which Ackles' father, actor Alan Ackles, also had a role playing the father of Ackles' character, Jake Gray.

In 2005, Ackles joined the cast of the WB show horror/drama series Supernatural where he stars as Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, fighting demons and angels, and dealing with all manner of fantasy & sci-fi genre. The show is currently in its twelfth season on the CW. It owns the title of the longest-running North American sci-fi series in history.

In the summer of 2007, Ackles took on the role of Priestly in the independent comedy Ten Inch Hero. The film began hitting the film festival circuit in early 2007 and Ackles received high praise for his comedic timing in the role. In February 2009, the film was released on DVD exclusively by Blockbuster Home Video. He also appeared on stage from June 5-10, 2007 with Lou Diamond Phillips in A Few Good Men at Casa Maana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, as Lt. Daniel Kaffee. Ackles received strong praise for his work in this role, which was also his professional theatre debut.

In the summer of 2008, Ackles was cast in the remake of the cult film My Bloody Valentine 3D, which opened nationwide on January 16, 2009.

In summer of 2010, Ackles lent his voice as the Red Hood (Jason Todd) for the animated film, Batman: Under The Red Hood, which was released to DVD and Blu-ray on July 27.

On October 22, 2010, Disney Interactive Studios announced that he would be voicing a character named Gibson in the video game, Tron: Evolution, which was released on December 7, 2010.

Personal life

After three years of dating, Ackles became engaged to actress, model, and gymnast Danneel Harris in November 2009. The couple married on May 15, 2010 in Dallas, Texas. Their first child, a daughter, was born in May 2013. In August 2016, the couple announced that they were expecting twins, a boy and a girl, later in the year. On December 2, 2016, their twins were born.

Ackles considers himself a non-denominational Christian.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	The Plight of Clownana	Jensen	Short film
2005	Devour	Jake Gray	Straight-to-DVD
2007	Ten Inch Hero	(Boaz) Priestly
2009	My Bloody Valentine 3D	Tom Hanniger
2010	Batman: Under the Red Hood	Jason Todd / Red Hood	DC Original animated film; voice role

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Wishbone	Michael Duss	Episode: "Viva Wishbone!"
1996	Sweet Valley High	Brad	Episode: "All Along in the Water Tower"
1996-1997	Mr. Rhodes	Malcolm	Recurring role; 7 episodes
1997	Cybill	David	Episode: "The Wedding"
1998-2002	Days of Our Lives	Eric Brady	Main role: November 6, 1998 - July 31, 2000
2001	Blonde	Eddie G	Television film
2001-2002	Dark Angel	Alec McDowell/X5-494 / Ben/X5-493	Main role; 22 episodes
2002-2003	Dawson's Creek	C.J.	Recurring role; 12 episodes
2003-2004	Still Life	Max	Main role; 6 episodes (note: unaired series)
2004-2005	Smallville	Jason Teague	Main role (season 4); 22 episodes
2005-present	Supernatural	Dean Winchester	Lead role
2011	Supernatural: The Anime Series	Dean Winchester	Voice role; 2 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Tron: Evolution	Gibson
2011	The 3rd Birthday	Kyle Madigan

As director

Year	Title	Notes
2010-2015	Supernatural	6 episodes

As producer

Year	Title	Notes
2004	The Plight of Clownana	Short film; executive producer

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Awards	Category	Result
1998	Days of Our Lives	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Best Male Newcomer
		Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series
1999	Days of Our Lives	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series
2000	Days of Our Lives	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series
2006	Supernatural	Teen Choice Awards	TV - Choice Breakout Star
		Constellation Awards	Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television Episode (for "In My Time of Dying")
2007	Supernatural	SFX Awards	Best TV Actor
2008	Supernatural	Constellation Awards	Best Male Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode (for "What Is and what Should Never Be")
		Ewwy Awards	Best Actor in a Drama Series
2009	Supernatural	Constellation Awards	Best Male Performance in a 2008 Science Fiction Television Episode (for "In the Beginning")
2010	Supernatural	Ewwy Awards	Best Actor in a Drama Series
		Constellation Awards	Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode (for "The End")
2011	Supernatural	TV Guide Award	Favourite Actor
2012	Supernatural	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
2013	Supernatural	Constellation Awards	Best Male Performance in a 2012 Science Fiction Television Episode (for "We Need To Talk About Kevin")
		People's Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic TV Actor
		SFX Awards	Best TV Actor
		Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
2014	Supernatural	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor
			Favorite TV Bromance (shared with Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins)
2015	Supernatural	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Chemistry: Jensen Ackles & Misha Collins
2016	Supernatural	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy TV Actor
2017	Supernatural	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy TV Actor