Jeremy Garrett

Jeremy Garrett
Birth name	Jeremy Vincent Garrett
Born	April 2, 1976 in San Diego, California, USA
Sometimes credited as	Jeremy Vincent Garrett
Notable Roles	Todd Wilkins Clay Hogan Russell James Cameron Walker
Notable Episodes
Awards	Regional Emmy nomination

Roles

Starring Roles

Series	Role	Year(s)	Season(s)
Sweet Valley High (credited as Jeremy Vincent Garrett)	Todd Wilkins	1996–1998	3	4
Legacy	Clay Logan	1998–1999	1

Guest Starring Roles

Series	Role	Episode	Airdate
Hang Time	Tom	3x02 - Sexual Harrassment	September 6, 1997
Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher	Michael	2x14 - Out of Her Class	January 18, 1998
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Football Player	2x19 - When Teens Collide	March 6, 1998
Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Cameron Walker	2x20 - Go Fish	May 5, 1998
Diagnosis Murder	Dr. Daniel Richards	7x02 - Sleeping Murder	September 30, 1999
Ally McBeal	Tim Boyle	5x05 - I Want Love	November 26, 2001
Ally McBeal	Tim Boyle	5x08 - Playing with Matches	January 7, 2002
CSI: Miami	Paul Varnette	1x04 - Just One Kiss	October 14, 2002
Joan of Arcadia	Todd Bainbridge	1x05 - Just Say No	October 24, 2003
Without a Trace	Luke Horton	2x10 - Coming Home	December 18, 2003
NCIS	Marine Capt. Patrick Barnett	2x03 - Vanished	October 12, 2004

Biography

He wanted to be an actor since the age of eight, but his first foray into taking a major stab was in high school drama club. He saw it as the start of something. He wanted to make drama his absolute major. The coach urged Jeremy to keep right on reaching. He eventually found his way to the professional theater and was granted such plums as Algernonin in "The Importance of Being Earnest," as well as in several one-act plays. Although as a day job, Jeremy modeled professionally before doing acting steadily. And while modeling was paying the bills, he continued to chase acting around. He auditioned mostly for the theater. He also performed La Jolla Playhouse in a festival of plays that took a look at racial bigotry, and in "Jason's Mask" at the Old Globe in San Diego, as part of the Young Playwrights Festival. He portrayed the role of an alpha-jock who's quite arrogant and something of a prankster. This is a role he would go to on to play a lot throughout his career.

He finally had his first major TV guest spot on the basketball-based series "Hang Time." One of his bigger success was being a guest presenter on the local KPBS TV show "Kickin' It" in his hometown as a guest presenter for which he garnered a regional Emmy Award nomination. But the part that gave him that big break in the public eye was replacing fellow pretty-boy actor Ryan Bittle in the plum role of Todd Wilkins, longtime boyfriend to Elizabeth Wakefield in the TV series adaptation of "Sweet Valley High (TV series)." Jeremy found himself profiled heavily in magazines, on covers from the book-series as well as other SVH-based propaganda.

After the "Sweet Valley High" was cancelled due to incredibly low ratings (the show had strayed away from the book series and just got more and more campy), he grabbed guest-sints on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)", "Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher", "CSI: Miami," "Ally McBeal" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)".

He managed another regular steady-spot as Clay Logan on the short-lived civil-war period soap "Legacy (TV series)" as one Clay Hogan. After that ended, he recurred on the WB's "Jack & Jill (TV series)."

Another role he took on when he was working regularly was the TV movie "Lies and The Women We Tell Them To" along with Kyle Chandler, Martine McCutcheon, Ed Helms.

After a nearly seven-year absence, he returned to the screen in the short Italian-made independent film "The Abandoned Circus".

Awards and Accolades

• He received a Regional Emmy nomination for hosting the a local San Diego KPBS TV Show "Kickin' It" at the age of 18 during his second college semester.

Trivia

• He has a distinguishing Jack Nicholson-like drawl in his voice and a very deeply clefted chin. He also has a very pouty mouth.

• He has brown hair and hazel green eyes.

• Replaced actor Ryan Bittle in the role of Todd Wilkins on the short-lived "Sweet Valley High" TV show in the third season.

• He loves to visit his family and his own native roots in Italy. His favorite thing to eat is his mother's native Italian home-cooking as well as sweet deserts.

• His favorite TV show is "Absolutely Fabulous."

• When he joined the cast of "Sweet Valley High" in 1996, he instantly bonded with co-star Cynthia Daniel and the two maintained a very strong personal bond that lasts even to this day.

• His favorite movies are "The Big Blue" and "Shine."

• Favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio. Favorite actress is Meryl Streep.

• Like his "Sweet Valley High" co-star Cynthia Daniel, he is a photographer and plans on having his photos of his tour through Europe published someday.

• Though he wasn't on any sports teams himself in high school, he now enjoys running, playing basketball and golf.

• Along with the entire cast of the TV version of "Sweet Valley High," he modeled for many of the book covers (portraying the plum role of Todd Wilkins).

• Claims he has a passion for seafood and dessert cakes that have rich frosting.

• Is fluent in Italian, but only speaks it when he's around his family.

• He plays basketball and golf. He also enjoys running and swimming.

• He not only played the famed Todd Wilkins character on "Sweet Valley High," but modeled for some of the book covers.

• Jeremy has made his first stint as a director in another Off-Broadway production called "An Infinite Ache" which was shown last Sept. 25-through-28, 2003.

• He portrayed Romeo in an Off-Broadway production called "Two Houses", a stage adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Quotes

• "It's hard to tell people that you're good-looking. I know I had nothing to do with it. So I say, 'Thank my parents. They're the ones with the good genes.' "

• "When a girl keeps looking down at my shoes, I can tell she's really not into me."

• "Sometimes I'll go to the record store, pick up some music I never heard before, and end up getting some really great stuff."

• "If I can trust a girl and she trusts me, I know we've got everything going on. But without total trust, feelings are about to get hurt."

• (His own personal idea of the perfect romantic getaway spot): "The island of Capri in Italy. It's very clean, quiet and isolated, so I can really get to know a girl there."

• (His personal ultimate hook-up): "I was modeling in Italy, and I had no idea how to get where I was supposed to go. So I asked a pretty girl on the street for directions and she took me there. I gave her my phone number and she called me a month later... after she broke up with her boyfriend!"

• "My motto for life is: pick a job you like and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

• "I'm Italian so that's my favorite food. I just love pasta, shellfish, shrimp and lobster. And sweet things are my weakness - especially cakes with cream."

• "The only time I get butterflies is when I go on a date for the first time - I get so scared of messing up. But I just take a couple of deep breaths and start talking."

• "Many a time getting your first shot at a role is based on your look. You can get your foot in the door. But if your talent doesn't match your look then the door quickly closes."

• "I write in my spare time. I've just about finished a screenplay about a young boy who has to choose between his girl and the Mafia. I'm going to play the lead!"

• (On moving past his role as Todd Wilkins from the "Sweet Valley High" TV series): "Well, for some reason it wasn't that hard for me. I think a lot of that has to do with casting directors and for me it wasn't that difficult. For a period of about six months, I'd gotten into that character so much that when I went in to audition for other roles, it was hard. You start to relate every role to how you have been playing your other character for so long. I realized that, hold on, I can't play every role like a young jock at a high school, I have to become someone else. But it wasn't hard for me, thank-goodness. One of the reasons I chose my role in 'Legacy', a period piece, is because it was the furthest thing from a high-school kid."

• (On his plans to pursue photography): "I grew up in San Diego and my dad bought me a camera one day. He said that I should take a photography class. I thought, 'Ugh, what am I going to do with a camera, I'll be stuck taking family photos all the time.' But you know what, I fell in love with it. Then I started assisting a photographer in San Diego and then here in L.A. I wanted to go into fashion photography, travel around the world doing pictorials for magazines, I'm so into that. But sometimes you have two loves and you have to decide which one is loving you more."

• (What scent he enjoys the most): "I love fruity creams from The Body Shop. They do a Dewberry moisturiser and if I smell that on a girl I get a hungry feeling!"

• (Do girls ask him out because of his stint on "Sweet Valley High"): "My episodes have only just started showing, so it hasn't made much difference. I've always been quite a flirt though, so I've never had trouble talking to girls."

• (What he can't stand more than anything): "I can't stand small-minded people, like racists, or those who judge people without knowing them."

• (What he looks for in a woman): "Simplicity - I like a girl who's honest, likes to laugh, and isn't too complicated. I like natural girls with no make-up - casual, but feminine."

• "I've been in love. It was the greatest, but most painful experience of my life. But time has healed me and I look forward to doing it again."

• "No, I don't really consider myself as an actor. But my guy friends...they really take the mickey out of me! They give me a little bit of razz and tease me a lot. 'Hey, hunk, how's it going?' That sort of thing. But it's just fun!"

• "I've travelled all over the world, but Britain is one place I've never been. I really can't wait thogh, and I'm hoping that being on the show will mean I get to visit."

• "When I lived in Japan, an English friend told me the sun doesn't come out often, and that it's pretty damp, but still really beautiful. I've also heard there are lots of nice girls!"

• "I was never a jock. I was more into theater than sports - though I did play basketball. In my last year of high school I really concentrated on theatre. My drama teacher really helped and encouraged me - he made me want to become an actor. I'd only done theater before Sweet Valley High, never television. I was in a few stage productions in the San Diego area. I found that it was such a wonderful thing to do. I really enjoyed playing characters. Before I became an actor i was a model. I worked in Paris, Tokyo and Milan modelling clothes on the catwalk for all the top fashion houses."

• "It blows my mind how, no matter what they say in Shakespeare plays, it sounds beautiful. Instead of just say 'good-bye, ' you say a ten-line poem which is so beautiful. No wonder girls commit suicide over you.

• (On the phenomenon of "The Spice Girls"): "I think they're beautiful. I used to like Mel B but now there's another one I like which I hadn't noticed before, Victoria, is that her name? Hmm, she's pretty good."

• (On getting the role of Todd Wilkins on the short-lived "Sweet Valley High" TV show): "I was at college in San Diego when my modelling agent called me and said there was an audition for a TV role he thought I'd be good for, so I went along. I hadn't been acting much because I was concentrating on my studies, but I went and did three auditions in three days, and that was that!"

• "Whenever I go to another country I buy the CD's they don't have in America. I love 'Wham!' and George Michael. I've never met George, but I'd love to see him in concert. I wish I could have seen him when he did his Unplugged concert in London. My favorite 'Wham!' song is called 'A Different Planet' and its very sad. I'm getting into the new Euro-house music too cos we don't have that in America."

• ("What is a day on the set of the 'Sweet Valley High' TV show like?"): "We arrive very early. I'll get there around five-thirty or six in the morning and go straight to the make-up department. Us guys have to wear mark-up too, you know! The girls get there a lot earlier - probably because they have more make-up to put on and they need to have their hair styled. We work long, 12-hour days, five days a week. Four days of production and one day of pre-production where we prepare and practise for filming. In the evenings we have to read scripts for the next day. Sometimes when I go to the gym to work out I bring my script along with me. I usually read the script while I'm on the treadmill. It's so difficult to read when you're jogging along the conveyour belt. But I never seem to have any other time in the day to do it."