Jeremy Sumpter

Jeremy Sumpter plays JD McCoy on “Friday Night Lights” which aired on DirecTV last fall and is currently airing on NBC on Friday nights beginning on January 16th.

Jeremy was born in northern California but grew up in a small town in Kentucky where his family had moved when he was very young. When he was eleven, Jeremy entered a talent competition, winning numerous awards. He signed with a personal manager and moved to Los Angeles in 2000.

After a few months in Los Angeles and a few auditions, Jeremy booked the role of "Young Adam Meiks" in "Frailty," a feature film directed by Bill Paxton. "Bill had been one of my favorite actors so to be able to work with him was unbelievable," says Jeremy. The adult "Adam Meiks" was played by Matthew McConaughey.

Next, Jeremy was chosen by Danny Glover to play Henry Sturbuck in the Showtime original film Just A Dream. "Working with Danny was great, we had a great time filming in a small town in Utah," explains Jeremy. Jeremy received the "Best Performance in a TV Movie, Mini-Series or Special - Leading Young Actor" from the Young Artist Awards.

Jeremy was able to use his surfing skills on his next film, "Local Boys." This coming of age film was shot on location in southern California. "This was a hard film to shoot since we were surfing at the beach almost everyday and there were all these girls around in bikinis," jokes Jeremy.

 

After a worldwide search, Jeremy was chosen to play "Peter" in the P.J. Hogan version of Peter Pan. This was one of the most coveted roles in films for a teen actor in recent years. "It was a part that I really wanted," says Jeremy, "since I'd be able to fight pirates and fly around the stage on wires." Jeremy trained extensively in sword fighting and gymnastics prior to shooting the movie in Australia.

Clubhouse was Jeremy's first television series. "It was really a dream role since I've always loved baseball and played little league when I was younger. I really wasn't going to do television, but I thought this project was special and it also came about in a funny way. I was in Tokyo doing some promotional work for Peter Pan when my manager and mother read the script for Clubhouse. They said I should take a look at it so I read it on the way back on the plane. I thought the script was great and that "Pete" was me. There was also a lot of old friends working on it. The Executive Producer had written Just A Dream, the director had been the director on a pilot I did several years ago," explains Jeremy.

Jeremy was cast in the role of Justin in Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life. “Justin was a good kid who got into a little trouble with his computer and got addicted to on-line pornography to the point where it almost ruins his life,” says Jeremy. After wrapping, he immediately went on to star in The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang in Oregon. A lot of the people from Napoleon Dynamite were involved in the film and it was a lot of fun for him to shoot. Jeremy shot "Calvin Marshall" in late 2007 in Oregon.

Jeremy is always looking to play a wide variety of characters and is reading several feature film scripts. In the future, Jeremy hopes to also work behind the camera as a director and producer. In his spare time he surfs, plays basketball, football, golf and shoots pool.

More info on his official website here