Ryan Phillippe

After watching "Cool Hand Luke" and developing an interest in acting, a casting agent discovered Ryan Phillipe teen while he was getting his haircut at a barbershop. Phillippe began traveling to New York regularly for auditions, and eventually began to land modeling work. At the age of 17, the high school graduate moved to the city and took odd jobs in restaurants and stores to pay the bills, while he built up an acting resume.

In 1992, Phillippe hit pay dirt when he was offered a controversial gay role on "One Life to Live." He boldly accepted the pre-Ellen, pre-"Melrose Place" landmark role; thus jumpstarting his career. The hectic soap shooting schedule was a great training ground for the new actor, and the amount of fan mail he received from troubled teens who related to his character was an enormous encouragement. Unfortunately, the show wrote out the character in less than a year, and an unemployed Phillippe took the opportunity to move to Hollywood and try his luck there.

Phillippe landed guest and supporting spots on primetime TV and eventually starred in an unsold ABC pilot "Time Well Spent" and the Fox TV movie "Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare." Phillippe made his screen debut as a glorified extra in "Crimson Tide," but his higher profile role as a timid student on board a floating prep school in "White Squall" began to earn him widespread recognition. He landed a lead role as a young man striving for normalcy in a dysfunctional family in the competent indie, "Little Boy Blue" before he suddenly found himself alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the horror thriller "I Know What You Did Last Summer." With the release of that colossal hit film, Phillippe was an overnight pin-up sensation - a position which he was thoroughly unprepared for.

Onscreen, Phillippe turned down offers to appear in more surefire teen hits; instead choosing to work with Billy Bob Thornton and Kelly Lynch in the little-seen cannabis comedy "Homegrown" and giving a great performance as a naive bartender caught up in the hedonistic world of disco, in the ultimately disappointing "54." The indie films had been worthwhile ventures, but Phillippe struck a balance of "interesting" and "potential commercial success" with "Cruel Intentions," Roger Kumble's update of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." Set among prep school students, Phillippe portrayed a modern-day Valmont in the stylish and successful film.

Continuing to test the waters with an entirely new audience, Phillippe appeared in Robert Altman's period piece "Gosford Park." The film, which was nominated for a Best Film Oscar, proved that the ogled-over hunk actor had substance and appeal far outside of his initial proving ground. Phillippe won further acclaim for his deft portrayal of smooth older brother Oliver Slocumb in the 2002 indie comedy "Igby Goes Down." In 2005 Phillippe turned in yet another powerful performance in the Oscar-winning Best Picture "Crash," playing an LAPD patrol officer who is troubled by the prejudices of his partner (Matt Dillon).

Phillippe's next film gave him the chance to stretch as an actor under the direction of Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood in the World War II epic, "Flags of Our Fathers." Phillippe was now steadily receiving offers to work with highly-respected directors in varied dramatic roles, and he delivered the goods again with "Breach." Phillippe followed up with a starring role in "Stop-Loss," the story of a returning Iraq war soldier from "Boys Don't Cry" director Kimberly Peirce.

Next up for Phillippe was a rare comedic role as Lt. Dixon Piper in the unsuccessful film MacGruber, based on the SNL skit of the same name. As part of the film's promotion, Phillippe made his Saturday Night Live hosting debut, along with first-time musical performer Kesha. In the summer of 2010, Phillippe began filming the adaptation of popular crime novel "The Lincoln Lawyer," taking on the role of Louis Roulet, a wealthy Los Angeles playboy accused of a crime for which his culpability is unclear. Phillippe filmed his next project, heist action movie "Set Up," which also starred Bruce Willis, Jenna Dewan and 50 Cent. Phillippe then spent several months filming a 10-episode arc on the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed TV show Damages.

In 2012, Phillippe focused on his directorial debut, "Shreveport," an upcoming indie thriller in which Phillippe will star as a fading film actor who must devise a creative escape after he is kidnapped and tortured while making a movie in Shreveport, Louisiana. Phillippe also served as executive producer and narrator on "Isolated," a documentary that follows five surfers as they travel to remote New Guinea in search of untouched waves. Ryan Phillippe will next star in the highly anticipated USA network series SHOOTER. Phillippe produces and stars as Bob Lee Swagger, an expert marksman living in exile who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. The series is set to premiere in Fall 2016.