With his good looks, a little luck, and raw talent, Josh Duhamel has had a very successful career. It all started with what some might call fate.
Josh ended up following an ex-girlfriend to California. While he was there, a talent scout from a modeling agency noticed him.
During his modeling days, he won the Male Model of the Year award at an International Modeling Talent Association competition. The first runner-up was another rising star, Ashton Kutcher.
Josh Duhamel’s first acting roles were as an extra in music videos. In 1998 he appeared in Donna Summers’ video for I Will Go With You. In 1999 he was in Christina Aguilera’s video for Genie in a Bottle. That same year, Josh landed his first leading role in the independent film The Picture of Dorian Gray.
He didn’t have to play in music videos for long for the bigwigs to notice. After the Christina Aguilera video caught the attention of ABC executives. He landed the role of Leo du Pres on the soap opera All My Children.
Josh quickly became a fan favorite on the soap opera. In 2002, along with co-star Rebecca Budig, he was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Special Fan Award for America’s Favorite Couple. He also won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor.
In 2002, Josh decided to leave All My Children, so Leo died on the show. To this day, the character’s name appears quite a bit in the soap opera.
The following year, Josh Duhamel landed a role on NBC’s Las Vegas. His character was casino security agent Danny McCoy.
His role in Las Vegas can be credited with truly launching his star status. She opened it up to a wider audience. After spending five years on the hit show, Las Vegas ended up getting canceled in 2008.
In 2004, while working in Las Vegas, Josh landed his first feature film as the star of Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. He played Tad Hamilton, sharing screen time with Topher Grace and Kate Bosworth.
In 2006 he starred in the thriller Tourists. Josh’s character is a tourist in Brazil whose backpacking journey takes a dangerous turn, leading the characters into a travel nightmare when they end up being held captive by a radical military group. Tourists was a low-budget movie that didn’t make much at the box office.
In 2007, Josh played Captain William Lennox in Transformers. Transformers was one of the most successful movies at the box office in 2007.
Josh landed the part after Steven Spielberg saw an episode of Las Vegas in which Josh’s character was returning home from the war in Iraq. Spielberg was so impressed that he cast him in the role. Josh will also play the role in the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, which will be released in June 2009.