James Van Der Beek--Dawson's Creek

 

James William Van Der Beek born March 8, 1977) is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery in the series Dawson's Creek and Johnny "Mox" Moxon in Varsity Blues (1999). He played a fictionalized version of himself on the cult ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, starred in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, and as Matt Bromley on the FX drama Pose. 

Van Der Beek was born in Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticut, son of Melinda (née Weber) (1950-2020), a former dancer and gymnastics teacher, and husband James William Van Der Beek, a cellular phone company executive and former professional baseball pitcher. He is partly of Dutch ancestry; his last name translates to "from the creek".

Van Der Beek played the role of Reuben in his middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At the age of 15, he asked his mother to take him into New York City to get an agent and try his hand in professional acting. He made his professional debut off-Broadway at age 16 in 1993 in the New York premiere of Edward Albee's play Finding the Sun with the Signature Theatre Company. He played the role of "Fergus". Both he and the production, which was also directed by Albee, received positive reviews. A decade later, in 2003, he appeared again off-Broadway, briefly, in the play Rain Dance.

Aged 17, while still in high school at Cheshire Academy, he performed in the musical Shenandoah at the Goodspeed Opera House, and made his feature film debut as a sadistic bully in Angus (1995) and shot a small role in the independent film I Love You, I Love You Not (1996).

He attended Drew University, on an academic scholarship, where he participated in an all-male a cappella group, but dropped out once Dawson's Creek was picked up as a series. He performed at the Vineyard Theater in New York in Nicky Silver's play, My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, and he played a supporting role in the independent film Cash Crop, which was originally shot in spring of 1997 and originally titled Harvest until released in 2001.