Taylor Kitsch

Taylor Kitsch is a Canadian actor and model. He is known for his role as Tim Riggins in the NBC television series "Friday Night Lights," Gambit in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Lieutenant Alex Hopper in "Battleship," the eponymous character in "John Carter," Chon in "Savages," Dr. Lewis in "The Grand Seduction" and Michael Murphy in "Lone Survivor."

Kitsch moved to New York in 2002 after receiving an opportunity to pursue modeling with IMG and studied acting there as well, there he became a nutritionist and a personal trainer. For a time in New York he was homeless and took to sleeping on subway trains in the middle of the night. In 2004, he relocated to Los Angeles where he modeled for Diesel and Abercrombie & Fitch. He also appears in the limited edition coffee table book "About Face" by celebrity photographer John Russo.

In 2006, Kitsch was cast in his breakout role on the NBC sports teen drama television series "Friday Night Lights" based on Peter Berg's 2004 film of the same name and is set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. Kitsch portrayed for five seasons the role of Tim Riggins, a high school student who is the fullback/running back of the Dillon Panthers.

He played Pogue Parry in "The Covenant" alongside Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Laura Ramsey, Toby Hemingway, Jessica Lucas and Chace Crawford. In February 2008, he signed on to play Gambit in the X-Men franchise spinoff "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," released in May 2009.

In 2010, Kitsch starred in Steven Silver's "The Bang Bang Club," a historical drama set in South Africa which documents the final bloody days of the apartheid. He had to lose 35 pounds in two months to play the role of photojournalist Kevin Carter, alongside Ryan Phillippe and Malin Åkerman. In November 2010, The Hollywood Reporter named Kitsch as one of the young male actors who are "pushing – or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List."

In the Disney film adaptation of "John Carter" based on Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel "A Princess of Mars," he played the title character and a confederate soldier who gets transported to Mars. In May 2012, Kitsch starred in Peter Berg's "Battleship," that is based on Hasbro's toy game, as Lieutenant Alex Hopper.

In July 2012, he starred in Oliver Stone's "Savages" with Blake Lively, Salma Hayek and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. In 2013, Kitsch starred in "The Grand Seduction," remake of Jean-François Pouliot's French-Canadian La Grande Séduction directed by Don McKellar, and another Peter Berg film, "Lone Survivor," based on Marcus Luttrell's book. He plays alongside Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo in Ryan Murphy's "The Normal Heart," which was released in 2014.