nbc.com

Best known as Tim Riggins in Peter Berg's television version of the box-office hit "Friday Night Lights," Taylor Kitsch stars as the high school football player who is the impassioned yet underlying strength of the Dillon Panthers.

As the "bad boy" girls yearn to fix, Riggins is troubled and struggling to find his own purpose. In this role, Kitsch brings a poignancy and vulnerability, having seduced his paralyzed best friend's girlfriend -- the All-American cheerleader Lyla Garrity -- and exposes his own demons by way of the bottle. Kitsch breathes life into Riggins and is taking the fullback from reckless to respected.

This summer, Kitsch will round out the cast of "Gospel Hill," alongside Julia Stiles, Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Giancarlo Esposito, the film focuses on the former sheriff of a Southern town dealing with his past sins, while a former civil rights worker, who is withdrawn since the martyrdom of his brother 30 years before, struggles to live life as well.

Kitsch started acting in 2002 when he moved to New York City to study with renowned coach Sheila Grey. It was only a matter of time before Kitsch really started to take off. Shortly after returning to his home of Vancouver in 2003, he landed his first major role alongside Samuel L. Jackson in David Richard Ellis' intense action feature "Snakes On a Plane," released in August 2006.

Further, Kitsch starred as prep-school student Pogue Perry in director Renny Harlin's "The Covenant" (released September 9, 2006: and #1 at the box office). In the adaptation of the graphic novel, four young men belonging to a supernatural legacy of "the Covenant" must stop evil forces released into the world centuries before.

Kitsch's other credits include Betty Thomas' "John Tucker Must Die," opposite Jesse Metcalfe, Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Brittany Snow, which was released in July 2006, as well as the TV series "Godiva" and the ABC Family's pilot "Kyle XY."

In his spare time, Kitsch is passionate about nutrition and fitness, pursues children's' charity work and enjoys spending time with family and friends.