Ed Westwick

Edward "Ed" Westwick (born 27 June 1987) is an English actor and musician who is best known for his role as Chuck Bass on The CW television drama Gossip Girl. He has also appeared in films such as S. Darko, Chalet Girl, and J. Edgar. Westwick was born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, the son of Carole, an educational psychologist, and Peter Westwick, a university lecturer. He has two brothers. At age six, he followed music lessons and went to a Saturday morning drama school. He attended the Barclay Secondary School and then North Hertfordshire College. He later trained at the National Youth Theatre in London. His early career began with appearances on the British television series Doctors as Holden, Casualty as Johnny Cullin and Afterlife as Darren. His film credits include Breaking and Entering, Children of Men and Son of Rambow. In 2007, Westwick was cast as Chuck Bass in The CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl, based on the book series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. For his portrayal, he assumed an American accent based on the character Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As a result of the show's success, he was named one of 2008's Sexiest Men Alive by People magazine, appeared the following year on its "100 Most Beautiful" list with the whole cast of Gossip Girl, earned two awards in 2008 and 2009 for Best TV Villain at the Teen Choice Awards, and was named Breakthrough Talent by GQ in 2010. Entertainment Weekly also named Westwick's character Chuck Bass number one in their "Best Dressed TV characters of 2008" list (tied with Leighton Meester's character Blair Waldorf), as well as in their "Best Performances" list alongside co-star Meester. Westwick said: "There wasn't much work in the UK. I was only in LA for a month and I got this show. It's changed my life. In 2008, Westwick became the new face of K-Swiss,making him the second member of the Gossip Girl cast to endorse sportswear (Leighton Meester endorsed Reebok) and appeared in the horror film 100 Feet. In 2009, Westwick played a role in the sequel to Donnie Darko and also guest starred in the third season of the Showtime original series Californication as a student who was fascinated with vampire literature. In May 2009, he was attached to play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. However, in January 2010 the project passed into the hands of a new director which caused a change in the cast. In 2010, Westwick appeared alongside Dev Patel and Pamela Anderson in the McHenry Brothers short film The Commuter, which was shot on a Nokia N8 smartphone. In January 2011, Westwick joined Clint Eastwood's film J. Edgar, a biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. That same year, he appeared in the romantic comedy Chalet Girl alongside Felicity Jones. He co-narrated the audio book version of City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and also narrated Clare's second novel Clockwork Prince from The Infernal Devices series. Westwick also became an international celebrity endorser for Penshoppe, a local clothing brand in the Philippines, in mid-2011. He co-starred in a 2013 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, as Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, alongside Hailee Steinfeld. In May 2013, it was reported that Westwick would play the lead role in the film adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's novel Bone In The Throat; filming is set to start in the fall. In August 2013, Westwick was in talks to join the film The Kitchen Sink.