Jason Behr was born on December 30, 1973 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His family moved around ten states until moving back to Minneapolis, where he eventually graduated from high school. At age 19, Behr moved to Los Angeles after meeting manager Marvin Dauer, where he starred in over 75 commercials, and later, in the comedy series Sherman Oaks.
After Sherman Oaks’ cancellation, Behr made guest appearances in different television shows, including Step by Step, 7th Heaven, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jag, before being cast in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek. While playing the role of Capeside jock Chris Wolfe, he was given the script for the television pilot Roswell High, which would eventually become Roswell. He joined after feeling an affinity for one of the leads—alien Max Evans, one of the clones of an alien family whose ship crash lands in Roswell. The series, which also starred Shiri Appleby and Katherine Heigl, was moderately successful, and commanded a loyal fan base.
Roswell was taken off the screens in 2002, after which Behr took on roles in different independent films, including Happily, Ever After, Man of God and Shooting Livien. He also appeared in The Shipping News, opposite Kevin Spacey, Judi Dench and Julianne Moore. He then appeared with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the horror film The Grudge, which was released in 2004.
In 2006, Behr was the male lead in the television pilot The Way, about a family who uses witchcraft to make them more successful in their business. CBS, however, did not pick up the series for its fall 2006 line-up. He also appeared in the film Senseless, where he played an economist abducted by an anti-globalization group in Europe; and in The Tattoist, where he plays a tattoo artist who inadvertently awakens an ancient spirit while studying Samoan traditions.