Early life

Westwick was born in Hammersmith, London, and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. He is the third son and youngest child of Carole (née Blenkiron), an educational psychologist, and Peter Westwick, a university lecturer. He has two older brothers. At age six, he began music lessons and attended a Saturday morning drama school. He was educated at The Barclay School and North Hertfordshire College, where he took A-levels in business, law, and communication. He later trained at the National Youth Theatre in London.

Career

Acting

Westwick made his film debut in Breaking and Entering (2006), following an open audition casting call sent to the National Youth Theatre. He went on to guest star in the British television series Doctors as Holden, Casualty as Johnny Cullin, and Afterlife as Darren. He also had a minor role in the film Children of Men (2006). He commented, "I needed to get some experience. I needed to be on set, in front of the camera."

In 2007, Westwick appeared in the film Son of Rambow and was cast as Chuck Bass in The CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl, based on the book series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. Westwick said of his casting, "There wasn't much work in the UK. I was only in LA for a month and I got this show. It's changed my life." For his portrayal of Chuck, he assumed an American accent, based on the character Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As a result of the show's success, he was named one of 2008's Sexiest Men Alive by People magazine, and appeared the following year on its "100 Most Beautiful" list with the whole cast of Gossip Girl. Westwick earned the 2008 and 2009 awards for Best TV Villain at the Teen Choice Awards, and was named Breakthrough Talent by GQ in 2010. Entertainment Weekly also named Westwick's character Chuck Bass number one in their "Best Dressed TV Characters of 2008" list (tied with Leighton Meester's character Blair Waldorf), as well as in their "Best Performances" list alongside co-star Meester.

In 2008, Westwick became the new face of K-Swiss. That same year, he appeared as Joey in the horror film 100 Feet. In 2009, Westwick played the role of Randy Jackson in the sequel to Donnie Darko, directed by Chris Fisher, and guest-starred in the third season of the Showtime original series Californication, as Chris "Balt" Smith, a student who was fascinated with vampire literature. In May 2009, he was attached to play Heathcliff in the film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. However, in January 2010, director Peter Webber left the project, which was then passed into the hands of Andrea Arnold. This directing change caused the roles to be recast.

In 2010, Westwick in the McHenry Brothers short film The Commuter, which was shot on a Nokia N8 smartphone. In January 2011, Westwick joined Clint Eastwood's film J. Edgar, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. That same year, he appeared in the romantic comedy Chalet Girl. He co-narrated the audio book version of City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and also narrated Clare's second novel Clockwork Prince from The Infernal Devices series. In mid-2011, Westwick became an international celebrity endorser for Penshoppe, a local clothing brand in the Philippines.

He next co-starred in the film adaptation of Romeo & Juliet as the main antagonist and Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. The film was released on 11 October 2013. Westwick then portrayed the lead role in the film adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's novel Bone in the Throat, which premiered at South by Southwest on 14 March 2015. Westwick then co-starred in the horror comedy film Freaks of Nature, which was released on 30 October 2015. In March 2015, he joined the cast of ABC's short-lived crime drama series Wicked City as Kent Grainger, a sadistic Sunset Strip serial killer. The series was cancelled after airing 3 episodes, but was picked up by Hulu to air the remaining 5 episodes. Westwick will next be seen in the thriller Jekyll Island, and Jim Gillespie's Take Down.

Music

Westwick fronted the British indie rock band The Filthy Youth, composed of himself, Ben Allingham, Jimmy Wright, Tom Bastiani, and John Voight. The band, formed in 2006, was inspired by the Rolling Stones, The Doors and Kings of Leon. The songs "Come Flash All You Ladies" and "Orange" were both featured in an episode of Gossip Girl.

Personal life

Westwick shared an apartment with his Gossip Girl co-star Chace Crawford in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan from the beginning of the series in 2007 until July 2009, when Crawford moved out. He dated his Gossip Girl co-star Jessica Szohr from 2008 until 2010.

Westwick moved to Los Angeles, after Gossip Girl ended. He is a keen Chelsea FC supporter, and is a friend of footballer Charlie Henry.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Children of Men	Alex
2006	Breaking and Entering	Zoran
2007	Son of Rambow	Lawrence Carter
2008	100 Feet	Joey
2009	S. Darko	Randy Jackson
2010	The Commuter	Bellboy in Lift	Short film
2011	Chalet Girl	Jonny Madsen
2011	J. Edgar	Agent Smith
2013	Romeo & Juliet	Tybalt
2014	Last Flight	Charles Gillis
2015	Bone in the Throat	Will Reeves
2015	Freaks of Nature	Milan Pinache
2016	Take Down	Billy Speck	In post-production
2016	Jekyll Island	Ben Collins	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Doctors	Holden Edwards	Episode: "Young Mothers Do Have 'Em"
2006	Casualty	Johnny Cullin	Episode: "Family Matters"
2006	Afterlife	Darren	Episode: "Roadside Bouquets"
2007-12	Gossip Girl	Charles "Chuck" Bass	117 episodes
2009	Californication	Chris "Balt" Smith	Episode: "The Land of Rape and Honey"
2015	Wicked City	Kent Grainger	8 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2008	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Breakout Star: Male	Gossip Girl	Nominated
		Choice TV Villain		Won
2009				Won
	Young Hollywood Awards	Young Hollywood Breakthrough - Male	Himself	Won
		Breakthrough Performance - Male	Gossip Girl	Won
2010	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Villain		Nominated
2011				Nominated
2012		Choice TV Actor: Drama		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]