Ian Somerhalder

Early life

Somerhalder was born and raised in Covington, Louisiana, the son of Edna, a massage therapist, and Robert Somerhalder, an independent building contractor.[1] Raised Catholic, heattended St. Paul's, a private Catholic school in Covington. He embarked on a modeling career from age 10 to 13,[2] and by the age of 17 he decided to go into acting.
n the summer of 2000, Somerhalderstarred in the short-lived WB series Young Americans, a spin-off of Dawson's Creek. He played Hamilton Fleming, the son of the dean of a prestigious boarding school. In 2002, Somerhalder played bisexualcharacter Paul Denton in Roger Avary's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel, The Rules of Attraction, alongside James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, and Jessica Biel.
In 2004, Somerhalder scored hisbreakthrough role when he played Boone Carlyle in the hit TV show Lost. Despite his character's death in the twentieth episode of the first season, Somerhalder returned to the role of Boone for sevenmore episodes between 2005 and 2010, including the series finale. Somerhalder was the first actor to be cast in a role for the series and the first character to die.
In 2009, Somerhalder appeared inthe movie The Tournament where he played the role of an assassin participating in a lethal competition with other assassins. On 10 October 2009, it was announced that he will star in the Gothic movieCradlewood, which is to be directed by Harry Weinmann.[3] The movie is set to be released in 2013.[4] He appears in the coffee table book About Face by celebrity photographer John Russo.[5][6]
InJune 2009 Somerhalder was cast in the role of Vampire Damon Salvatore as a series regular in The CW television drama series The Vampire Diaries. The series premiere attracted The CW's highest premiereratings of any season premiere since the network began in 2006. The series has continued to be the highest rated series on its channel with both Somerhalder's performance and show receiving a...