Justin Hartley Biography

Justin Hartley was born on January 29, 1977 in a Galesburg Hospital, Illinois, to Mark D. Hartley and Jackie Lee. At the time of his birth, his family used to live in Knoxville, situated just southeast of Galesburg, where he spent his early childhood.

Justin Hartley has an elder brother called Nathan and a younger sister named Megan. From his mother’s second marriage to David Carrillo, he also has a half-sister called Gabriela Francesca.

His parents divorced sometime in 1980s. Thereafter, the siblings were raised by their mother in Orland Park, located in the suburbs of Chicago

Justin had his secondary education at Carl Sandburg High School, Sandburg, from where he graduated in 1995. An avid basketball player, he also played baseball and soccer in high school.

As a young boy, he also loved acting and found pleasure in bringing characters to life. He must had also been a good student and on graduating from school entered the prestigious Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), undecided about future course of action.

It was possibly at Carbondale that he took up a class called Interpretation of Children’s Literature, hoping to secure good grades without much difficulty. What he did not realize that it was actually an acting class requiring oral interpretation. Although frightened at first, he soon began to love it.

Soon he began watching people, trying to understand what makes one character react differently from other even though they are from the same background. The course ignited not only a passion for acting, but also an interest in analyzing various characters.

Sometime midway, he left SIUC and moved to University of Illinois at Chicago, from where he graduated, possibly in 2000, with degrees in History and Theater. Shortly, he left home and moved to Los Angeles to give acting a chance.

Fresh from his college, 23 years old Justin Scott Hartley arrived in Los Angeles, without a single connection in the entertainment industry. Neither did he know anything about its inner workings, nor about things like talent agents, casting directors, entertainment lawyers etc.

For two years, he worked as a restaurant waiter in Los Angeles, learning the ropes, keeping his hope high. Finally in December 2002, he was hired to play the role of series regular Nicholas Foxworth 'Fox' Crane in the NBC daytime soap opera, Passions, playing the part till February 2006.

While Passion did not do really well in the American daytime rating, his work attracted attention, receiving two Soap Opera Digest Awards nominations for his role in the series. In 2005, he got his next job, debuting in films as Joe in Race You to the Bottom

In 2006, he was chosen to play Oliver Queen / Green Arrow in Smallville, appearing in a recurring role in the sixth and seventh season and in the main role in the next three, covering a total of 72 episodes till May 2011.   Concurrently, he continued to appear in other productions.

In 2008-2009, he appeared in three feature films: Red Canyon, Spring Breakdown and A Way with Murder. He also appeared as Nick Korda in twelve episodes of the web series, Gemini Division and stared as Dan Lane in the television film, MegaFault.

In 2010, he got his next star role in a feature film, appearing as Bill King in Scorpio Men on Prozac. Also in the same year, he co-wrote one episode of Smallville. Titled Sacrifice, it was aired on April 30. A year later, he debuted as a director with the Dominion episode of the same series.

From 2011 onwards, he began guest starring in various television series like Chuck, Castle, Heart of Dixie, Melissa & Joey, meanwhile appearing as Will Collins in Emily Owens, M.D. from October 2012 to February 2013. From September 2013 to May (March)1 2014, he appeared as Patrick Osbourne in 12 episodes of Revenge.

In 2015, he had his sixth film, The Challenger, released, appearing in it in the star role of James. Meanwhile from 2014 to 2016, he continued to appear in recurring roles of Scott Trosman in Mistresses and as series regular Adam Newman in The Young and the Restless

In September 2016, he began a new role, playing Kevin Pearson in the family drama television series, This Is Us, remaining with the production until its end in May 2022. Meanwhile, he also directed two of its episodes, A Hell of a Week: Part Three (Season 4) and Every Version of You (Season 6)

He has also appearing in several feature films, which include A Bad Moms Christmas (2017), Another Time (2018). Little (2019), Jexi (2019), The Hunt (2020), The Exchange (2021), Injustice (2021) and Senior Year (2022). His works on television include Jane the Virgin (2019), Robot Chicken (2020) and Family Guy (2022)

Justin Hartley is possibly best known for his role in the superhero television series, Smallville, appearing in it as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow, the CEO of Queen Industries and leader of a small group called the Justice League. The work, spread over seventy-two episodes made him a household name.

He is also equally known for his role of Adam Newman on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless and Kevin Pearson in the NBC drama series This Is Us.

On May 1, 2004, Justin Hartley married his Passion co-star, Lindsay Korman. They have a daughter named Isabella (born in July 2004). Although the marriage ended in a divorce in 2012, they remain on amicable terms, sharing joint custody of their child.

On October 28, 2017, he married actress Chrishell Stause. This marriage too ended in a divorce In February 2021.

In March 2021, Justin Hartley married his The Young and the Restless costar Sofia Pernas.