A native of Minneapolis, MN, Vincent Paul Kartheiser was born on May 5, 1979 – one of five children born to Marie Gruye and James Ralph Kartheiser. Young Vincent –nicknamed “Vinnie” as a child – was home-schooled for most of his life, but received his formal college education at the University of California, Los Angeles. His acting career, though, began way before then. At age 12, Kartheiser made his screen acting debut with a bit part in the Marisa Tomei-Christian Slater romantic drama, “Untamed Heart” (1993). This led to more work, primarily in G and light PG-rated fare, most notably in the underrated “The Indian in the Cupboard” and the adventure drama “Alaska” (1996), in which he starred opposite Thora Birch and Charlton Heston. While the movie took a critical drubbing from reviewers, “Alaska” led to Kartheiser getting his first lead role in the light-hearted kiddie comedy, “Masterminds” (1997) starring Patrick Stewart.
Kartheiser's next role firmly established his range and capacity to take on more complex parts. In 1997, Kartheiser played the drug-addicted street urchin, Bobby, in director Larry Clark's unsettling drama, “Another Day in Paradise,” opposite James Woods and Melanie Griffith. In 2000, Kartheiser’s excellent turn in director Rob Schmidt’s “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia” further solidified the young star’s desire to re-invent himself. A loosely based modernized take on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, Kartheiser’s performance in “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia” was singled out as a highlight of an otherwise mediocre film when it screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2002, Kartheiser landed his first series regular role as David Boreanaz’s son, Connor, on the supernatural action-drama “Angel.” The offspring of Boreanaz’s eponymous bloodsucking anti-hero and a beautiful vampiress named Darla, Connor was kidnapped soon after birth by Angel’s hated arch-enemy, the demon Holtz. Raised to adolescence in a hellish alternate dimension called Quor-Toth, Connor grew up brainwashed by Holtz into hating his father. Due to the slower passage of time in the “real world,” however, only days passed since the infant’s abduction. Unfortunately, by the time Angel and company finally managed to rescue Connor from Quor-Toth, the boy had been driven mad with grief. Feeling betrayed, Connor blamed his father for abandoning him and attacked him as his enemy – just as Holtz had planned. Eventually, however, Connor discovered the truth about his past and returned to the real world with Angel. Unfortunately, Connor’s abrupt transition from the bowels of Hell to modern-day Los Angeles proved too much for the youth to handle. Connor’s gradually unraveling mental state subsequently became one of the main focuses of the show's fourth season.
Returning to film work, Kartheiser starred in the well-received coming-of-age drama “Dandelion,” which was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Two years later, Kartheiser popped up in a supporting role as one of Jesse James Hollywood’s drug-dealing cronies in director Nick Cassavetes’ “Alpha Dog” (2006). In 2007, Kartheiser hop-scotched back to the small screen for his most serious role to date – that of roving-eyed accounting executive Pete Campbell in Matthew Weiner’s superb black comedy “Mad Men.” An ambitious, amoral go-getter, Pete was presented in the “Mad Men” pilot as a soon-to-be husband, who despite his pending nuptials, has no intention of giving up his womanizing ways.