Early life

Stanford was born in Westford, Massachusetts, the son of Judith (née Dupras), an English professor, and Don Stanford, who works in publishing. His brother David is a musician. Stanford attended Westford Academy in Westford Massachusetts for high school and met his first acting teacher there. He initially attended the SUNY Purchase, but transferred to Rutgers University Mason Gross School of Arts. He graduated in 2000, magna cum laude.

Career

Stanford's first major film role was in the low-budget indie film Tadpole (2002), in which he portrays Oscar Grubman, a precocious 15-year-old with a crush on his stepmother, played by Sigourney Weaver. At the time of filming, (2000) he was 23 years old. For this performance he earned a nomination for the Golden Satellite Award. In 2001 and 2002 he appeared multiple times on the television series Third Watch as Russian teen Sergei. In the same year he was named as one of Daily Variety's "Top Ten Actors to Watch" and included on Entertainment Weekly's "It List". In 2004 he appeared in Christopher Shinn's play Where Do We Live at the Vineyard Theatre. Stanford also starred as Anthony LaPaglia's son in the 2004 film Winter Solstice.

Director Bryan Singer was impressed with Stanford's performance in Tadpole, and cast him as Pyro in the 2003 blockbuster X2, a sequel to X-Men. He continued the role in the third installment, X-Men: The Last Stand, released in May 2006. Both movies are based on the Marvel Comics series X-Men. Stanford also starred in ABC's midseason replacement Traveler, a drama about two friends who believe they are set up by their good friend (Stanford) in order to make them look like the conspirators of a terrorist attack.

Stanford appeared in the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes. He also won the "One To Watch" award at the 2006 Young Hollywood Awards. And in that same year, he starred in the New Hampshire-based comedy, Live Free or Die, playing a wannabe tough-guy criminal named John Rudgate. Aaron also was the voice actor for Pvt. Polonsky in Call of Duty: World at War. In 2009, he played a troubled poker genius in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent's season 8, as well as Horace Cook Jr. in an episode of AMC's acclaimed show Mad Men. In 2010, he joined the CW's Nikita as Birkhoff. His character from the film The Hills Have Eyes appears in the 2012 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Zombies Mode.

Stanford plays the lead role of James Cole in the television adaptation of the movie 12 Monkeys, which premiered January 2015 on Syfy.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Tadpole	Oscar Grubman	Nominated—Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical—Satellite Award
	Hollywood Ending	Actor
	25th Hour	Marcuse
2003	X2	John Allerdyce/Pyro
	Rick	Duke
2004	Winter Solstice	Gabe Winters
	Spartan	Michael Blake
2005	Runaway	Michael Adler
	Standing Still	Rich
2006	The Hills Have Eyes	Doug Bukowski	Bloodiest Beatdown—Fangoria Chainsaw Award
	Live Free or Die	John "Rugged" Rudgate
	X-Men: The Last Stand	John Allerdyce/Pyro
2007	Flakes	Neal Downs
	The Cake Eaters	Dwight "Beagle" Kimbrough
2008	Holy Money	Anthony
	How I Got Lost	Andrew Peterson	NY Emerging Talent Award—Big Apple Film Festival

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001-02	Third Watch	Sergei	Recurring role, 5 episodes
2007	Traveler	Will Traveler	Main role, 8 episodes
	Numb3rs	Brett Chandler	Episode: "Hollywood Homicide"
2009	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Josh Snow	Episode: "All In"
	Mad Men	Horace Cook Jr.	Episode: "The Arrangements"
	Fear Itself	Stephen	Episode: "Echoes"
2010-13	Nikita	Birkhoff	Main role
2015	12 Monkeys	James Cole	Lead role

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Call of Duty: World at War	Private Polonsky	Voice-Over

[ Source: Wikipedia ]