Chris William Martin was born on January 17, 1975 in Burnaby, British Columbia. Chris grew up in East Vancouver till the age of 2, when his family moved to the small town of Yarrow. His parents are Chris William Martin and Victoria Kathleen Martin and he has an older sister named Krista. He attended Hugh McRoberts Jr High, and later Richmond High School in British Columbia. In addition, he is an alum of Ideal Mini School in Vancouver.
His first taste of acting came when he auditioned for a Vancouver teen drama in 1991. He was among 4,000 aspirants and became one of only 15 who got selected for the show. After three years, the series was picked up by Nickelodeon before Martin went on to star in the show, Madison, for which he was nominated as Best Actor in the Gemini awards.
In 1999, Martin made his feature film debut in the Carl Bessai movie Johnny, playing the title role. This earned him a Jury Citation for Outstanding Performance from the Toronto International Film Festival, landing him more roles and opportunities. He worked once again with Bessai on the film Lola, which was internationally screened in film festivals. Martin has also appeared as a guest on a number of television shows. He has been seen on Hawkeye, Highlander, and Traders. However, he is best known for his stint on the drama Felicity, where he portrayed Greg Stenson. His other TV roles have been in Amazon, Earth: Final Conflict, and The Outer Limits. In 2003, he worked with Bessai once more for the movie Emile. Another film credit of Martin’s is Try Seventeen, where he worked alongside Mandy Moore and Elijah Wood. His next projects became Tru Calling, North Shore, Veronica Mars and playing the title character in Tom Stone. In 2005, he appeared several times on the series The L Word, before working on Shark, Psych and Robson Arms. In 2007, he joined the cast of the TNT series Heartland as Dr. Simon Griffith, and portrayed another doctor in Lincoln Heights that same year. Martin was later seen on CSI: Miami, NCIS, and the film AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem. In 2008, he landed roles on an episode of Bones, as well as the TV movies The Terrorist Next Door and The Unquiet.
(Photo courtesy of TNT)