Born on Dec. 15, 1977 in his mother’s hometown of Detroit, MI, Stults moved with his family to Pikes Peak, CO when he was five. He grew into his gifts for sports in the early 1990s, especially at Manitou Springs High School, where he played four sports; excelling most of all in football as a quarterback. His abilities were good enough to land him a scholarship to Whittier College in Whittier, CA, where he developed into an exceptional wide receiver. While in school, he also began to take a small interest in acting, but his future career took a backseat to football. With his academic sports career coming to a close, Stults knew he was not likely to make the pros in America. He graduated college with a political science degree, before heading off to Europe to play semi-professional football in Austria as a wide receiver for the Danube Dragons.
After winding down his football career in the late 1990s, Stults returned to live in California where he and his brother, George, who was also an actor, were tapped for representation by the same agent. The two siblings shared an apartment and often found themselves competing for the same roles. Stults managed to land an episode on the flagship sitcom, “Everybody Loves Raymond” (CBS 1996-2005), making an appearance in early 2000. He quickly began putting his sturdy presence to good use on the small screen, moving on to act in the failed NBC sitcom pilot, “Just Married” in April.
Stults appeared on “Spin City” (ABC, 1996-2002), then did an a guest spot on “Grounded for Life” (WB, 2001-05) in 2001. Later that year, the producers of another WB series, “7th Heaven” (1996-2007), brought him in to play hunky fireman Ben Kinkirk, who falls for the reverend’s daughter Mary (Jessica Biel) and makes enough of an impression to shake up her intended nuptials to someone else. Brother George joined the show later that year, playing the more stable-minded police officer Kevin Kinkirk. Over the next four seasons, Stults made recurring appearances, while his brother went on to became a series regular.
But Stults kept busy in films and on television while maintaining his “7th Heaven” role, appearing in several unaired pilots and the indie spy comedy feature “D.E.B.S.” (2004). By the fall of 2004, he had a double shot of NBC with guest spots on “Joey” (2004-06) and “Las Vegas” (2003- ). Then “7th Heaven” producer Aaron Spelling tapped Stults to star in his fantasy drama “Mermaid” for The WB, but again the pilot failed to get picked up. Meanwhile, Stults made his first foray into producing with the made-for-TV movie “Deceit” (Lifetime, 2006), a noir thriller about a man who returns to his hometown after his father’s death and begins an affair with the wife of his best friend. “Deceit” marked the first project shepherded through his own Eleven Eleven Films banner.
Stults increased his stature in the public’s eye with a couple of studio films, starting with a small appearance in the mega-hit “Wedding Crashers” (2005). He found himself recruited with “Crashers” co-star and friend Vince Vaughn in “The Break-Up” (2006), a romantic comedy which saw Stults appear briefly as a handsome love interest for Vaughn’s co-star Jennifer Aniston. By the time the film began shooting in the summer of 2005, the actor found himself part of the ongoing tabloid fodder about Aniston’s break-up with husband Brad Pitt. His visibility suddenly rose in the press when he was wrongly pegged as Aniston’s new off-screen boyfriend, a romance allegedly made during filming in Chicago before it became clear that Aniston and Vaughn were the real couple.
Despite the press’ proclamations of romance, Stults had little time to think about it all. He went back to work, filming another pilot for ABC called “October Road” (2007- ) and was already in a committed relationship with long-legged wrestler and “Dancing with the Stars” (ABC, 2005- ) contestant Stacy Keibler. “October Road” was eventually aired as a midseason replacement, with Stults playing Eddie Latekka, the once-best friend of Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg), a novelist who tries reconnecting with his Massachusetts home after he burned his bridges a decade ago. The series premiered in March 2007 and came on strong enough to earn a second season order.