Shane West Biography

Actor Shane West got his big break on TV’s critically-acclaimed family drama Once and Again (1999-2002) and went on to play Dr. Ray Barnett on the series ER from 2004 until the show ended in 2009.

A native of Louisiana, Shane West moved to Los Angeles as a boy and got into acting as a teenager. By the time he was 18 he had appeared as a guest star in a number of TV shows, and in 1999 he made his feature film debut in Liberty Heights. His role opposite Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember (2002) put him squarely into heartthrob territory, and he has continued to make feature films while working in television.

His other films include Dracula 2000 (2000, with Gerard Butler), Get Over It (2001, with Kirsten Dunst), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003, starring Sean Connery), and Awakening the Zodiac (2017). Shane West also played historical figure John Alden on the fantasy TV series Salem from 2014-17.

Shane West is also a musician; from 2005-2009 he sang with The Germs, a 1970s punk band that reformed with West replacing original front man Darby Crash. West also played Crash in a 2007 biopic of the band, What We Do Is Secret.