On the big screen, Van Der Beek has starred in such films as "Rules of Attraction," "Scary Movie," and "Varsity Blues," which earned him a 1999 MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance.

Suffering a mild concussion when he was 13 years old, the athletic Van Der Beek was not permitted to play on the football team that year. So, for the first time, he decided to try out for the school play and landed the lead role of Danny Zuko in the school's production of Grease. Bitten by the acting bug, he continued to do local theater in his hometown of Cheshire, Conn.

Soon, he was cast in the off-Broadway play "Finding the Sun," which was written and directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee. He commuted six hours every day during the limited three-month run for rehearsals and performances in the middle of high school.

Van Der Beek's first on-screen performance came with a role in the 1995 film "Angus," and he was featured in "I Love You...I Love You Not" with Claire Danes.

A dean's list student, Van Der Beek received an academic scholarship to Drew University in Madison, N.J., where he studied English until the call came from Dawson's Creek. In what little free time he has, he enjoys writing and playing all kinds of sports.