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Josh Duhamel
Photographed by Jerry Avenaim 2006
Born	Joshua David Duhamel November 14, 1972 (1972-11-14) (age 36) Minot, North Dakota United States
Occupation	Actor
Domestic partner(s)	Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson
Awards won Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor 2002 All My Children

Joshua David Duhamel (pronounced duh-MEL; born November 14, 1972) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning American actor and former fashion model. He first achieved acting success in 1999 as Leo du Pres on ABC's All My Children and later as the chief of security, Danny McCoy, on NBC's Las Vegas. He is also well known for his role as one of the protagonists, Captain William Lennox, in the box office hit Transformers.

Biography

Early life

Duhamel was born in Minot, North Dakota, the son of Bonnie, a physical education teacher, and Larry David Duhamel, an advertising salesman.¹ His parents divorced during his youth, and although he remains close to both, he grew up with his mother² and his younger sisters Ashlee, Mckenzee and Kassidy. Duhamel attended Minot State University and participated on the university's football team as the quarterback,². He intended on attending dental school³ but dropped out one-and-a-half credits shy of his degree.⁴

Career

Duhamel has stated, "After college, I followed an ex-girlfriend to northern California, did a bunch of odd jobs and then sort of fell into modeling."² He won the title of Male Model of the Year in an IMTA (International Modeling and Talent Association) modeling competition in 1997⁵ (his first runner-up was actor Ashton Kutcher⁶).

Duhamel began his acting career as an extra in the music videos for Donna Summer's song, "I Will Go With You (Con te partirò)" in 1998 and Christina Aguilera's song, "Genie in a Bottle" in 1999.² Later that year, he won the role of Leo du Pres on the ABC soap opera All My Children. His work on the show, especially his character's pairing with Greenlee Smythe (portrayed by actor Rebecca Budig), garnered critical acclaim. In 2002, Duhamel earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for the Special Fan Award for America's Favorite Couple, shared with Budig, and won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Leo du Pres.⁷ Duhamel opted to leave All My Children in 2002 to pursue other acting opportunities.

In 2003, Duhamel landed a prime time role on the NBC show Las Vegas, playing Montecito Casino security agent, Danny McCoy. He succeeded James Caan as president of the Montecito after Caan departed at the end of the fourth season. The series was cancelled in 2008.

Duhamel made his big-screen acting debut in 2004's Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! and continued on to star in the thriller Turistas (2006). After watching an episode of Las Vegas in which Duhamel's character had just returned from the war in Iraq, director/producer Steven Spielberg handpicked him for the role of Captain William Lennox in 2007's summer blockbuster film Transformers⁵ (a film which Spielberg was the executive producer). Duhamel will reprise the role for the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, scheduled for release on June 26, 2009.⁸

Personal life

In 2004, Duhamel was engaged to his girlfriend of several years, fashion model Kristy Pierce, whom he met on a photo shoot. They broke off their engagement months shy of their wedding.⁴ He is now engaged to Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson,⁹ who is a singer in the band The Black Eyed Peas. They met, and began dating, in September 2004¹⁰ when she and her band appeared on Duhamel's show Las Vegas (in an episode titled "Montecito Lancers", which aired on November 1, 2004). Duhamel and Ferguson reside in Brentwood, California¹¹ in a house that they purchased together in 2007.¹²

Duhamel branched into entrepreneurship in 2005 by opening a restaurant with three other people, "10 North Main", in the downtown section of his hometown of Minot, North Dakota.¹³

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

See also

• Leo du Pres and Greenlee Smythe

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Josh Duhamel

• Josh Duhamel at the Internet Movie Database
• 10 North Main, Josh Duhamel's restaurant