Colton Haynes

Colton Haynes
Haynes at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Colton Lee Haynes (1988-07-13) July 13, 1988 Witchita, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, model, musician
Years active	2007–present
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in)

Colton Lee Haynes (born July 13, 1988) is an American actor and model. At the age of fifteen, Haynes began modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch while living in New York City, New York. After moving to Los Angeles, California, he began acting in television. He is best known for his roles as Jackson Whittemore in MTV's supernatural drama series Teen Wolf and Roy Harper in the superhero television series Arrow.

Early life and education

Colton Lee Haynes was born on July 13, 1988, in Wichita, Kansas,^[1] the son of William Clayton Haynes ^[2] and Dana Denise Mitchell ^[3]. He has described his parents as "free-spirited hippies".^[1] Haynes has five siblings, including a brother, Clinton.^[1][4] One of his paternal great-great-great-grandmothers, Sarah Ann Ward, was of documented part Cherokee Native American descent; his father's other ancestry was English, Scottish, and Scots-Irish.^[5][6][7] Haynes grew up on a farm in Andale, and has also lived in Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida.^[8] He attended Navarre High School (Florida), Andale High School (Kansas) and graduated from Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz, Texas.

Career

Modeling career

Haynes began his career as a model at the age of fifteen in New York City, New York. Haynes first began his success after appearing in a Bruce Weber photoshoot for Abercrombie & Fitch.^[9] He also appeared in a photo shoot for gay-oriented magazine, XY Magazine in 2006. Afterward, Haynes began modeling in campaigns for Kira Plastinina, J. C. Penney, and Ralph Lauren.^[8] In 2008, Haynes continued modeling in campaigns such as Verizon and also appeared in numerous magazine editorials such as Teen Vogue and Arena.

Acting career

Haynes at a Teen Wolf event

He made an uncredited appearance in the 2007 blockbuster Transformers. He also made a guest appearance on CSI: Miami, where he portrayed Brandon Fox, a young man who fails to commit suicide after being in a massive debt. He made a cameo appearance as a model in two episodes of The Hills. In addition to guest roles, Haynes also acted in My Chemical Romance's music video for their single "I Don't Love You", directed by Marc Webb.^[9] In the second half of 2007, Haynes auditioned for the role of Edward Cullen in the film version of Stephenie Meyer's young adult novel, Twilight. Robert Pattinson was cast instead.^[10]

In 2008, he guest appeared as Alexander on the television series, Privileged, and also appeared as Ares Kostopolous on the television series, Pushing Daisies.^[11] He won the role of Scott Holland in the Hallmark Channel film, Always and Forever. Filming began in December 2008, and the film was released to television on October 24, 2009. He unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Royce Du Lac in the Nickelodeon film, Spectacular!.

It was announced in 2009 that Haynes had won the role of Shane in the Showtime series Look, based on the 2007 film of the same name. "I play a 17-year-old asshole. The show is very racy with lots of nudity, sex, drugs and real life experiences that will shock audiences," Haynes said in an interview.^[12] Filming began in the summer of 2009 and the show premiered in 2010 and was cancelled after its first season. In March 2010, filming began for the ABC television series, The Gates, in which Haynes portrays Brett Crezski, a jock who begins to turn into a werewolf. The series premiered on June 20, 2010.^[13] The show was short-lived and was cancelled after its first season. Afterwards he landed the role of Jackson Whittemore in the MTV series, Teen Wolf,^[14] based on the 1985 film of the same name, which is currently his best known acting role to date.

On October 11, 2012, Haynes tweeted "These past few years have been the best of my life. I'm sad that this chapter has ended, but excited for a new one to begin. Thx for the love" leaving fans of Teen Wolf (and of his character Jackson Whittemore) confused. The next day it was announced that he would be leaving the show.^[15] He is now a recurring member on the hit CW show Arrow, playing Roy Harper, who was the Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy (Red Arrow/Arsenal) in the comics.^[16] Haynes was upgraded to series regular status on Arrow for season two.^[17]

In popular culture

Haynes appeared on the cover of Hero in the magazine's #6 issue for Winter 2011/Spring 2012.^[18]

In April 2007, Haynes appeared in My Chemical Romance's music video for "I Don't Love You", portraying the man in black who falls in love with the woman in white.^[19] In September 2012, he was the lead in Leona Lewis's music video "Trouble", where he played the part of her boyfriend.^[20] In July 2013, he starred in Victoria Justice's music video "Gold".^[21]

In 2013, Haynes released some snippets to various covers of songs he had done. Colton started to further his career by singing, something he has loved to do since he was little. In November, he covered a song called "19 You+Me" with New Heights.^[22] In December 2013, he released a single with fellow singer Travis-Atreo called "Baby It's Christmas".^[23]

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colton Haynes.

• Colton Haynes at the Internet Movie Database
• Colton Haynes on Twitter