Justin Chambers, a former male fashion model who was discovered by a modeling scout in a Paris Metro station and went on a campaign to represent Calvin Klein's fragrance, is now starring as "Dr. Alex Karev" on ABC's Grey's Anatomy (2005).
Justin Willman Chambers was born on July 11, 1970 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. His is one of five children of Pamela Sue (Willman) and John William Eugene Chambers II, and has English, Irish, and German ancestry. He has a twin brother named Jason, one older brother and two older sisters. While on vacation in Paris, he was spotted by an agent and soon went on modeling for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and others throughout Europe, Japan and the United States. In the 1990s, he settled in New York, where he studied at H.B. Studios for 4 years. That schooling yielded him appearances in several off-Broadway stage productions and a few television roles.
Chambers' first break came in 1995, a four-month gig on a long-running NBC's daytime soap Another World (1964), then he appeared opposite Lolita Davidovich in Harvest of Fire (1996) and in CBS's Rose Hill (1997) opposite Jennifer Garner. After that, he catapulted to the "IT" list of the late 1990s and was described as "part-James Dean, part-'Marlon Brando'" by Harper's Bazaar in 1998. He made his big screen debut in the featured role of a rich WASP who befriended a Jewish kid in Liberty Heights (1999), a Barry Levinson drama. He then starred as "D'Artagnan" in D'Artagnan (2001) alongside Catherine Deneuve and Mena Suvari, then co-starred with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez in Un mariage trop parfait (2001). His career slowed down for a few years, yielding little meaningful exposure in films and on TV, with the exception of a supporting role alongside Uma Thurman and Gena Rowlands in HBO's Hysterical Blindness (2002). In 2005, Chambers made a comeback starring as "Dr. Alex Karev" opposite Katherine Heigl on ABC's Grey's Anatomy (2005). He also starred as obsessed police detective, "Sgt. Matt Parish", in the thriller The Zodiac (2005).
Justin Chambers has been enjoying a happy family life. He is a father of five children with his wife, Keisha Chambers, a model agency booker, whom he met while he was modeling with Calvin Klein. The two have been married since 1993. A longtime New Yorker, he used to travel back and forth from New York to L.A. while his family was still in New York. His wife and children have recently moved to L.A. with Justin from their New York home.
