Background:

“That's opened up so many doors, and I'm so grateful for what that movie's done. It was really kind of a special little slice of life that brought me where I am today. Thankfully I got to do other things.” Cam Gigandet (On 'Twilight')

American actor Cam Gigandet is perhaps most popular to moviegoers for playing James in the box office hit “Twilight” (2008), the first film in “The Twilight Saga” film series, which were adapted from the Stephenie Meyer best selling books. He picked up a MTV Movie Award and two Teen Choice Awards for the role. He also received a MTV Movie Award and a Teen Choice nomination for his performances in the films “Never Back Down” (2008) and “The Roommate” (2011), respectively. Other films Gigandet has appeared in include “The Unborn” (2009), “Pandorum” (2009), “Easy A” (2010), “Burlesque” (2010), “Trespass” (2011) and “Priest” (2011). The alum of Auburn Senior High School began his career on television with notably performances in shows like “The Young and the Restless” (2004), “Jack & Bobby” (2005) and “The O.C.” (2005-2006) before concentrating on feature film work.            

Gigandet is engaged to actress Dominique Geisendorff. They have one daughter, Everleigh Ray Gigandet (born in 2009), and are currently expecting their second child. Gigandet has a black belt in the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga. He enjoys basketball, football, movies, surfing and skiing.


Tacoma Boy

Childhood and Family:

Cam Joslin Gigandet was born on August 16, 1982, in Tacoma, Washington, to Jay and Kimberly Gigandet. His father is one of the founders of the popular firewood pizza restaurant The Rock located in the Northwest. He has an older sister, Kelsie Gigandet, who is a celebrity hair stylist. Cam graduated from Auburn Senior High School in Auburn, Washington in 2001 and then moved to California, where he attended Santa Monica Community College.  

On April 14, 2009, Cam became a father when his girlfriend Dominique Geisendorff gave birth to a baby girl, Everleigh Ray Gigandet. The couple announced in July 2012 that they are expecting their second child.    


Never Back Down

Career:

Cam Gigandet kicked off his acting career in 2003 when he landed a guest spot in the CBS series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” It was not long before he signed on to play a trouble-prone teen, Daniel Romalotti, on the daytime soap opera “The Young and the Restless” (2004). However, he quit just three months after the character's debut to make the jump on primetime TV. Still in 2004, he starred as Joe in “Mistaken,” a 28 minute thriller movie directed and co-written by Eric Colley.

In 2005, Gigandet landed the recurring role of Randy Bongard, Missy's on-and-off boyfriend on the WB teen drama “Jack & Bobby,” which starred Christine Lahti and Matt Long. He next joined the cast of “The O.C.” during season 3-4 (November 2005-November 2006) in the recurring role of Kevin Volchok, a murderous surfer.  

Features eventually came calling, and Gigandet was cast as Mick in “Who's Your Caddy?” (2007), a comedy film directed by Don Michael Paul and starring Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Andy Milonakis, Faizon Love, Terry Crews, Tony Cox, Jeffrey Jones, and Jesper Parnevik. He also had a small role in crime/drama film “On the Doll” (2007), starring Brittany Snow, Josh Janowicz and Clayne Crawford.     Gigandet's luck starting to change when he landed the notable role of Ryan McCarthy in the Jeff Wadlow directed action/drama “Never Back Down”(2008), alongside Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Evan Peters and Djimon Hounsou. The role brought him a MTV Movie for Best Fight, which he shared with Sean Faris.  Gigandet gained even more recognition when he won the role of James, the leader of a group of nomadic vampires, in the feature adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel “Twilight” (2008), starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The film was a box office success, and Gigandet took home a  MTV Movie for Best Fight and two Teen Choices for Choice Movie Rumble and  Choice Movie Villain for his performance. Apart from the attention getting performances, Gigandet played the role of Kip Adams in the comedy film “American Crude” (2008), which was directed by Craig Sheffer.

Gigandet won the lead role of Mark Hardigan on “The Unborn” (2009), a supernatural horror/thriller film written and directed by David S. Goyer, co-starred with Dennis Quaid in the science fiction film “Pandorum” (2009), which was directed by Christian Alvart and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson, and worked with Jena Malone and Mark Boone Junior in the drama “5 Star Day” (2010), which was written and directed by Danny Buday. He also co-starred opposite Emma Stone in the comedy “Easy A” (2010),  Cher, Christina Aguilera and Alan Cumming in Steve Antin's musical “Burlesque” (2010), Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Lily Collins and Maggie Q in “Priest” (2011), a post-apocalyptic dystopia science fiction action film loosely based on the Korean comic of the same name, and Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and Liana Liberato in “Trespass” (2011), a thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher. He was cast as Minka Kelly's boyfriend in the thriller movie “The Roommate” (2011), directed by Christian E. Christiansen, and was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the category of Choice Movie Actor: Drama for his performance.

Gigandet played the role of Stunner on the television movie “Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden,” which was aired on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday, November 4, 2012. The same year, he starred as Jake Flynn in another TV film called “The Tin Star.”

Gigandet has completed filming the role of Bishop in Wesley Wittkamper's drama “Making Change” (2012) and another role in “Red Sky” (2013), an action movie helmed by Mario Van Peebles. He is also set to appear in a series of upcoming films, including “Free Ride” (2012), “Johnson” (2013), “One Square Mile” (2013), “Plush” (2013) and “In the Blood” (2013), and is rumored to appear in the films “Risen” (2012), “One” (2013) and “Call to Duty” (2013).         


Awards:

MTV Movie : Best Fight, “Twilight,” 2009
Teen Choice: Choice Movie Rumble, “Twilight,” 2009
Teen Choice: Choice Movie Villain, “Twilight,” 2009
MTV Movie: Best Fight, “Never Back Down,” 2008
Young Hollywood : One to Watch, 2008 Show Less