Mehcad Brooks

Actor Mehcad Brooks possessed a winning personality and a confident swagger that commanded attention even before he stepped foot in front of the camera. First lauded as a star athlete-turned-model, Brooks began making his mark in Hollywood with appearances on dramas like "Boston Public" (Fox, 2000-04) and "Cold Case" (CBS, 2003-10), before landing a career-making role on ABC's hit series, "Desperate Housewives" (2004-12), as a presumed good guy who with a murderous past. In 2008, Brooks joined the ensemble cast of director Alan Ball's vampire series, "True Blood" (HBO, 2008-14), playing a tormented drifter who was forced into doing some horrific acts before his character met a gruesome fate.

Brooks then took on a leading role on the series, "My Generation" (ABC, 2010), a highly anticipated drama-with-a-twist that showcased the actor's prodigious natural talents and emerging status as a serious performer.

Mehcad Jason McKinley Brooks was born on Oct. 25, 1980 in Austin, TX to former NFL player, Bill Brooks, and columnist, Alberta Phillips. He excelled in high school sports, and was named a Texas all-state basketball player. Brooks attended the University of Southern California's famed School of Cinema-Television. Starting off his career as a model, Brooks had minor roles in a number of independent movies and sitcoms before landing a four-episode arc on the Fox series, "Boston Public." He guest starred on the sitcom, "Malcolm in the Middle" (Fox, 2000-06) where he played a school bully, and also appeared on the crime drama, "Cold Case." In 2006, Brooks scored his biggest TV break when he became a series regular on "Desperate Housewives," where he played Matthew Applewhite, the "good" son of Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) and brother of Caleb (Page Kennedy), who is locked up in the family's basement for supposedly killing Matthew's ex-girlfriend. The part required Brooks to play up his good looks and charming personality as to trick everyone in the neighborhood - including his own mother - into believing he was not involved in the death of his former girlfriend. That same year, he made his feature film debut in "Glory Road" as a member of the NCAA's first all-black starting lineup.

Brooks padded his resume with a brief stint on the romantic comedy series "The Game" (CBS, 2006-09; BET, 2011-15), about a group of women dating professional football players. In 2008, he played a tortured guitar-playing drifter named Eggs on the award-winning vampire saga, "True Blood," based on the "Sookie Stackhouse" book series by Charlaine Harris. The gripping drama transformed its cast into A-list stars, and helped Brooks land a starring role on the short-lived drama, "The Deep End" (ABC, 2010). He played a glib and unapologetically dynamic lawyer who often butted heads with the other new associates at the firm. In 2010, he showed off his lighter side as the best friend of an injured basketball player in the comedy "Just Wright" opposite Queen Latifah and rapper Common. That same year, Brooks starred on "My Generation," a documentary-style TV series that caught up with a group of high school students a decade after their graduation. On the highly anticipated series, he played a soldier who was serving a tour in Afghanistan while struggling with his new roles as a husband and father.