Shane West was born in 1978 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He began to pursue an acting career at the age of fifteen, gaining bit parts on various television shows, but it was not until 1999 when West appeared in ABC's Once and Again that he got his major breakthrough. Aside from catapulting to teen heart-throb status with the success of the show, West has made his mark on the screen within such films as Liberty Heights and Whatever It Takes. Aside from acting, West continues the musical traditions of his family (both parents were musicians when he was young) with his band, Average Jo, for which he writes and plays guitar.


Dated Rachael Leigh Cook Has a song on the soundtrack of A Walk to Remember (2002) with "Average Jo". He was so in love with the 1968 Camaro his character drove in A Walk to Remember, (2002) that he bought it for $5000. He dedicated a song to the late actor Jonathan Brandis of "SeaQuest DSV" (1993) fame. At the end of A Walk to Remember (2002), his character had gone off to and was accepted to medical school. Two years later, he played a doctor on "ER" (1994). Is replacing Darby Crash in legendary punk band The Germs.