Born on September 12, 1973, Paul Walker began his career through appearances on television advertisements as a child. His first television acting stint was as a guest on different episodes of Highway to Heaven, before being cast on the first season of the sitcom Throb. He started acting in low-budget films like 1987’s Monster in the Closet and 1994’s Tammy and the T-Rex, while modeling. He also had a short stint in the daytime soap The Young and the Restless.
In 1998, Walker appeared in his first widely-released film, Meet the Deedles, which was panned by critics. The same year, he appeared in Pleasantville, alongside Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. His later films were mostly aimed at a teenage audience: among others, She’s All That and Varsity Blues, both released in 1999.
Walker’s breakout role came in 2001, when he starred in The Fast and the Furious, opposite Vin Diesel. He also appeared in the positively-received film Joy Ride, alongside Steve Zahn. His films would most be of the action-adventure kind, most notably 2 Fast 2 Furious, the sequel to his breakthrough film.
In 2006, Walker appeared in the Clint Eastwood war drama Flags of our Fathers, as a Marine soldier. He also starred in action thriller Running Scared, which was originally shot two years ago and was described by its director, Wayne Kramer, of being more in line with Walker’s personality than his other films. He also starred in the Disney true-to-life adaptation Eight Below, about a researcher in the Antarctic who gets trapped in a storm.
He is slated to appear in the independent film The Heaven Project, of which he is also producer. He is also slated to appear in the fourth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise, entitled Fast and Furious; he reprises his role in the original film.