Thomas Dekker

With a list of credits that rivaled most actors of such a young age, Thomas Dekker managed to weather the storm of transition from child actor to adult. Though known mostly to fans as Zach on the cult hit "Heroes" (NBC, 2006-10), Dekker's career began at the age of five. An accomplished and talented musician as well as actor, Dekker won four Young Artist Awards for his film and television work. Starring as John Connor on FOX's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008-09), Dekker quickly became a rising star, due in no small part to the cult audience who embraced the fabled "Terminator" story.

Born Dec. 28, 1987 in Las Vegas, NV to a Welsh concert pianist mother and a Dutch-American opera singer father, Dekker traveled throughout the world with his family as a child until they settled in Los Angeles when Dekker was five years old. Following in his parents' footsteps, Dekker took up acting and music as a child - he was cast as a singer in his first national television commercial at age five. He went on to land a number of roles in film and television soon after - he made his small screen debut on "The Young and the Restless" (CBS, 1973- ) in 1993 and made his film debut the following year as Thomas Picard, one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) sons in "Star Trek: Generations" (1994). Dekker went on to appear as David, one of the cursed children in John Carpenter's remake of "Village of the Damned" (1995) and lent his voice to the numerous animated sequels to both "The Land Before Time" (1988) and "An American Tail" (1986).

Dekker landed his first regular television role in 1997 as Nick Szalinski on the syndicated series "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" (1997-2000), based on the 1989 film of the same name. Focusing on his first passion - music - Dekker began to compose classical music at the age of 10. Enrolling in a home school program after the end of "Kids" in 2000, Dekker was allowed more time to focus on his music. He landed his first record deal at the age of 15. After working on the first eight tracks with producers however, Dekker walked away from the project, feeling that his own musical vision was not being honored by the record company. He continued writing music on his own, building his own home studio in Palmdale, CA, where he wrote, produced, recorded and mixed his first album, Psyanotic, a mix of his classical music training with a modern electronica sound.

Dekker continued to pursue acting as well, appearing on a number of TV series, including "Boston Public" (FOX, 2000-04), "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-15), and "House" (FOX, 2004-12). He landed a guest-starring recurring role in 2005 on the WB's long-running family hit "7th Heaven" (1996-2007) and went on to guest-star as Zach on NBC's cult hit "Heroes" (2006-10) in 2006. Though his character was originally intended to appear in only one episode, Dekker was asked to remain on the series for a 12 episode arc. Landing the role of John Connor on "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (FOX, 2008-09), Dekker was forced to leave "Heroes," somewhat reluctantly. Starring opposite Lena Headey and Summer Glau on "Terminator," Dekker continued the role introduced to fans in James Cameron's blockbuster "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).

Debuting on Jan. 13, 2008, the series continued the story arc of Sarah and John Connor's lives after the events of the second Terminator film. The series premiered with favorable ratings, though as of April, 2008 the fate of the show's second season was still up in the air, due in part to the 2007-08 writers' strike.