Nick Wechsler established a footprint in American television in the late 1990s, as a bad-boy-turned-good on the brief but fanatically followed sci-fi show "Roswell" (The WB/UPN, 1999-2002). A New Mexico native, Wechsler began landing work in Hollywood projects almost immediately out of high school, with his first regular job being that of a hotshot crime-fighter on the fanciful action series "Team Knight Rider" (syndicated, 1997-98). In 1999, he joined a sparkling young cast on The WB's soapy aliens-among-us series "Roswell," entering squarely into the teen-magazine hunk sweepstakes, and went on to land a string of recurring roles on TV shows such as "Without a Trace" (CBS, 2002-09) and "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" (FX, 2005- ). In 2010, he took a rare lead in the stark ultra-indie "Mineville." He established a regular niche again on the small screen as one point in a razor-edged love triangle central to the plot of the ABC intrigue-in-high-society series "Revenge" (2011- ). From rugged Everyman to smoldering beefcake, Wechsler had showed himself adept at remaking himself wholesale role-to-role throughout his career.
He was born Samuel Nicholas Wechsler on Sept. 3, 1978 in Albuquerque, NM, one of eight sons of Joseph, a sheet metal worker, and Janet, a secretary for the U.S. Forest Service. Nick grew up both athletically and artistically inclined, wrestling for the Highland High School team and, on a lark, taking a shot at acting. He won roles in school plays and started building his résumé as a wunderkind in professional productions at the city's Performing Arts Center, among them such classic stage fare as "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Waiting for Godot" and "You Can't Take It With You." Upon graduating in 1996, he moved to Los Angeles to immerse himself in the job market. He won a small part that year as a street tough in an NBC telefilm based on the Danielle Steel novel Full Circle. The next year, he landed a regular gig on the syndicated action series "Team Knight Rider," a sequel series to the hammy 1980s show about a sentient computer car, this iteration featuring a high-tech, crime-fighting team with five different sentient vehicles at their disposal. Wechsler played the youthful tech-savvy member of the team, Trek Sanders, the designated rider of the similarly geeky sentient motorcycle.
The show only lasted a year, but in 1999, Wechsler would be cast in another genre project, the teen sci-fi series for the youth-oriented WB network, "Roswell." Set in the New Mexico town synonymous with 1947 reports of a flying saucer crash-landing, the show played off the lore with the premise that aliens survived the crash and were passing as teenagers attending the local high school, befriending a clique of well-meant human kids who help them evade government agents. Wechsler joined a youthful cast that included Catherine Heigl, Colin Hanks and Jason Behr, and the show quickly developed a cult following. Wechsler played the high school jock son of the local sheriff (William Sadler), initially at odds with the central clique but eventually becoming a trusted ally. Though the show was never highly-rated, its young stars became swoon-fodder in youth media cliques and, with a bit of buzz on him, Wechsler went home to Albuquerque to take a supporting part in the locally-shot indie comedy "Chicks, Man" (2000). After "Roswell" shuttered in 2002, he garnered some television one-off work, including recurring roles on the short-lived mystery series "Vanished" (Fox, 2006) and the hit procedural drama "Without a Trace" in its 2007-2008 season.
In 2008, he turned up in a funny short film, "Infamous," about two down-on-their-luck actors moonlighting as hit men, and took a supporting part in the indie drama "Fling," a revolving character drama surrounding a couple in an open relationship and the fallout from their respective dalliances at a friend's wedding. In 2009, he began a recurring role on the over-the-top FX comedy, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," playing an ex-boyfriend of Dee about to marry The Waitress, prompting Dee to initiate the "Sunny" Gang's typical unconscionable chicanery in attempts to forestall the nuptials. In 2010, he took the lead in "Mineville," the tale of bad blood in an Upstate New York mining town, an ultra-low-budget feature by local native Lori Kelly that nevertheless drew such talents as Paul Sorvino and Wechsler's old co-star Sadler. Wechsler landed steady work again in 2011 with the surprising hit "Revenge" (2011- ), ABC's ambitious drama about a young woman, Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) who turns up in the New York cloister of the ultra-wealthy Hamptons, and begins insinuating herself amongst high society circles, being as she is also the secret daughter of a disgraced family seeking retribution against those who framed her father. Wechsler played Jack Porter, a childhood friend of Emily and, upon her incognito return, a competitive love interest amid her machinations, though nearly losing out to Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman), scion of the family she has targeted.
By Matthew Grimm