Mike Vogel

One of the more impressive younger talents in Hollywood, actor Mike Vogel established himself as the lead in several genre films and as a minor player in more mainstream fare prior to earning recognition as a talented performer in either starring or supporting roles. Following his debut as a recurring character on the comedy series "Grounded for Life" (Fox, 2001-05), Vogel went on to star in smaller features like "Grind" (2003), "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003) and "Supercross" (2005). With supporting turns in mass appeal projects like "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (2005), "Rumor Has It" (2006) and "Poseidon" (2006), he began to gain the broad exposure that would take his nascent career to the next level. The payoff came when Vogel was cast as a co-lead in the J. J. Abrams-produced monster movie "Cloverfield" (2008) and scored a prominent role in the sleeper hit film "The Help" (2011). Steadily building an impressive résumé on film and television, Vogel positioned himself for the next career-making opportunity that would springboard him to even greater success.

Born July 17, 1979 in Abington, PA, the young actor grew up in the town of Warminster, PA and attended William Tennent High School, where as a freshman, he was a member of the wrestling team. After graduating, he went to Philadelphia College of the Bible to study history, but left following his first year. Instead, he began focusing on his acting career and spent a year commuting back and forth to New York City for acting and modeling auditions. In short order, Vogel booked a recurring role on the hit comedy series, "Grounded For Life" (Fox/The WB, 2001-05), appearing in 14 episodes altogether and leading him to move to Los Angeles. Not long after the move, the young actor was cast as Heath in the musical version of "Wuthering Heights" (MTV, 2003), alongside Erika Christensen and future "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl. Cast in the lead role, Vogel was given the opportunity to display his singing talents in several musical numbers.

The year 2003 proved to be a significant one for Vogel, who began amassing feature credits like "Grind," a teen comedy that focused on four aspiring skateboarders, and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," a critically panned remake of the horror classic co-starring Jessica Biel and Erica Leerhsen. Vogel followed with a string of new films in 2005, playing Eric in the hit teen chick flick, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," which he followed with a small part in the misbegotten Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy, "Rumor Has It," and a starring role as a kid brother and motocross racer in "Supercross: The Movie." After playing a scruffy, British slacker in the edgy independent comedy "Caffeine" (2006), Vogel was engaged to marry the daughter (Emmy Rossum) of the heroic former mayor of New York (Kurt Russell) who gives up his own life for others to escape a sinking ship in "Poseidon" (2006), a remake of the campy disaster flick, "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972).

Turning more into a leading man, Vogel was the star of the independent horror thriller, "The Deaths of Ian Stone" (2007), playing a young man who is hunted by an evil supernatural presence that forces him to repeatedly die until he figures out the mystery of his own life. In the surprise hit "Cloverfield" (2008), he was one of many New Yorkers faced fighting for survival after an attack by a monstrous creature that defies human comprehension. Taking a different career track, he co-starred in the teen romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" (2010), which he followed with his first regular television role, playing one of the doctors on a Miami trauma team in the Jerry Bruckheimer production, "Miami Medical" (CBS, 2010).

Unfortunately, "Miami Medical" failed to find an audience, although Vogel may have been too busy at the time to be overly concerned. That same year found the prolific young actor making appearances in two more films, including a supporting role as Michelle Williams' violent ex-lover in the heartbreaking indie "Blue Valentine" (2010). He also starred in the little-seen "Heaven's Rain" (2010), a based-on-fact drama in which he played a young man who survived a brutal attack on his family, during which his sister was raped and his parents murdered. Vogel next played the ex-boyfriend of small town bigot Bryce Dallas Howard in the surprise hit "The Help" (2011). Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, it told the story of an aspiring writer (Emma Stone) in 1960s-era Mississippi who decides to pen a controversial tell-all book from the perspective of several of the town's African-American maids. Back on television, he joined the crew of "Pan Am" (ABC, 2011-12). A weekly melodrama about the lives and loves of several young stewardesses, "Pan Am" was also set in the 1960s, an era when air travel was still considered glamorous. Near the end of the year, Vogel also turned up briefly in the Anna Farris-Chris Evans romantic comedy "What's Your Number?" (2011).