Early life and career

Rankin was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1976. Up to age eleven, he also grew up there with his parents and three older sisters. The family then moved to Houston, Texas, where Rankin finished High School.

After watching the television show The Fall Guy, Rankin originally intended on becoming a stunt man, until he realized the main actor, Lee Majors, was only an actor playing a role. Rankin began his acting career with an appearance on the television show Unsolved Mysteries. began his acting career in 1997 with a small role in the drama film The Apostle. Starting in 2000, roles in various television series followed, notably Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NYPD Blue and Philly. In 2002, he starred as "Doc" in eleven episodes of the series My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star. He also had other, longer-running appearances in Undeclared, Six Feet Under, State of Mind, Bionic Woman (2007 TV series) and Friday Night Lights. In 2009, he scored the role of "Tyler Briggs" in the NBC-series Trauma. However, the series was cancelled after the first season with 18 episodes. In 2011, he guest-starred in five episodes of the HBO-drama Big Love. He played a main role in the criminal series Unforgettable from 2011 to 2012. After a restructuring of the show, his character was dropped in the second season.

Personal life

In 2000, Rankin moved to Los Angeles, where he met Jill Farley. At the shooting of the pilot episode of Trauma, he proposed to her. They married on October 23, 2010 and have a child together.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	The Apostle	Young Man in Car
1999	Clean and Narrow	Tommy Lee
2001	Carman: The Champion	Scrappy
2003	Riverside	Brent	Short film
2003	Hulk	Harper
2005	Heads N TailZ	Heads
2007	Box One Forty-Seven	Bill	Short film
2010	Friendship!	Marvin
2011	The Chaperone	Goldy
2012	Santeria: The Soul Possessed	Brother Neil
2012	Congratulations	Casey Tremblay	Co-executive producer
2013	Pawn Shop Chronicles	Randy
2013	Dallas Buyers Club	T. J.
2013	White House Down	Killick
2014	Wild	Greg
2014	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	McVeigh
2016	Hell or High Water	Billy Rayburn	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Unsolved Mysteries
2000	After Diff'rent Strokes: When the Laughter Stopped	Lanny	Television film
2000	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Donny Maclay	Episode: "Family"
2001	Spin City	Kurt	Episode: "Trainstopping"
2001-2003	Undeclared	Lucien	4 episodes
2002	Philly	Marty Schlosser	Episode: "Tall Tales"
2002	NYPD Blue	Chris Nelson	Episode: "One in the Nuts"
2002	Birds of Prey	Dr. Lewis Melfin	Episode: "Three Birds and a Baby"
2002	My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star	Doc	11 episodes
2003	All About the Andersons	—	Director, episode: "My Hero"
2004	The O.C.	Lucas	Episode: "The Strip"
2004	Without a Trace	Larry Schneider	Episode: "Transitions"
2005	Six Feet Under	Johnny	4 episodes
2006	Bones	Mike Doyle	Episode: "The Man in the Morgue"
2006-2008	Friday Night Lights	Herc	21 episodes
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Shawn Curtis	Episode: "Leaving Las Vegas"
2007	Grey's Anatomy	Jack Vaughan	2 episodes
2007	State of Mind	Arthur Cromwell	3 episodes
2007	Bionic Woman	Nathan	7 episodes
2008	Law & Order	Dean Emerson	Episode: "Misbegotten"
2008	NCIS	Dennis Moran	Episode: "Stakeout"
2008	My Name Is Earl	TR	Episode: "Killerball"
2008	The Closer	Dean Murphy	Episode: "Live Wire"
2008	1%		Television film
2009	Last of the Ninth	Slick Rick	Television film
2009	Lost	Jerry	Episode: "LaFleur"
2009	In Plain Sight	Jerry Rogan / Jerry Royal	Episode: "In My Humboldt Opinion"
2009-2010	Trauma	Tyler Briggs	20 episodes
2010	The Mentalist	Danny Ruskin	Episode: "Cackle-Bladder Blood"
2010	All Signs of Death	Talbot	Television pilot
2010	The Odds	Holt McCready	Television film
2010-2012	Justified	Devil	8 episodes
2011	Lie to Me	Kent Clark	Episode: "Saved"
2011	Big Love	Verlan Walker	5 episodes
2011-2012	Unforgettable	Roe Saunders	22 episodes
2012-2013	Breaking Bad	Kenny	7 episodes
2014	Gracepoint	Paul Coates	10 episodes
2014	The Newsroom	Cellmate	Episode: "Oh Shenandoah"
2016	Lucifer	Malcolm Graham	7 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]