Early life

Bennett was born in Rossford, Ohio to David Bennett, a Toledo physician, and Ruthanne Bennett (née Mason). He has two half-brothers, Brian and Brent and one half-sister, Lisa. Both of Jonathan's parents have died. His mother died November 30, 2012, at the age of 67, and his father died of brain cancer on April 28, 2014 at age 73.

Jonathan attended Eagle Point Elementary School in Rossford. His first acting experience was in a play in the seventh grade while living in North Carolina. Shortly after that, he moved back to Rossford, where he attended and graduated from Rossford High School. He graduated in 1999 and attended Otterbein College, where he was a student of the theatre program. After dropping out of college, he moved to New York to pursue acting.

Career

After moving to New York, he was cast on the ABC soap opera All My Children as J.R. Chandler from 2001 to 2002. Since then, he has appeared in various television dramas, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Deception, Smallville, and Veronica Mars. Bennett co-starred in the hit comedy Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan where he played Aaron Samuels, the love interest of Lohan's character Cady Heron. He subsequently co-starred in the family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen 2 with Piper Perabo and the romantic comedy Lovewrecked with Amanda Bynes. Bennett appeared in the direct-to-video prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning where he played Bo Duke. Also in 2009, he appeared as Nick in the Hallmark original movie Elevator Girl with his Mean Girls co-star Lacey Chabert and Ryan Merriman.

In 2009, Bennett starred as the title character in Van Wilder: Freshman Year, which was released straight to DVD.

As of 2015, he is hosting a cooking competition on the Food Network called Cake Wars.

Modelling and political activism

Bennett posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. In the ads by photographer David LaChapelle, Bennett has three screws through his upper and lower lips, symbolically pinning his mouth shut. The ads drew some media attention.

Dancing with the Stars

On September 4, 2014, Bennett was announced as one of the celebrities competing on the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars. He was paired with professional dancer Allison Holker. Bennett's personal motivation for joining the DWTS cast was in memoriam of his parents; his father having recently died from brain cancer, and his mother died the year prior, and they were both fans of the show. Bennett and Holker were eliminated on Week 6 of competition and finished in 9th place.

Personal life

Bennett supports the Love is Louder project and uploaded a video of himself talking about the bullying that he had gone through. Bennett stated, "Of all people, I know how mean people can be to each other. I mean, we made a whole movie about it . It happened to me in high school, it happened to me in college it still happens to me today. And I’m not gonna lie, it sucks. Sometimes it really sucks. But it doesn’t have to forever because there are people out there who love you, and love is a lot louder than hate.”

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Season of Youth	Taylor	Palm Beach International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2004	Mean Girls	Aaron Samuels	Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout Movie Star - Male
2005	Love Wrecked	Ryan Howell
2005	Cheaper by the Dozen 2	Bud McNulty
2006	Bachelor Party Vegas	Nathan
2009	Assistants, TheThe Assistants	Zack Cooper
2012	Memorial Day	SSgt Kyle Vogel
2012	Music High	Jasper "Jazz" Poland
2012	Divorce Invitation	Michael
2012	Slightly Single in L.A.	Seven
2013	Pawn	Aaron
2013	Anything Is Possible	George
2013	Secret Village, TheThe Secret Village	Greg
2013	Misogynist	Harrison	Nominated — Best Actor - Los Angeles Underground Film Festival
2014	Authors Anonymous	William Bruce
2014	Mining for Ruby	Andrew
2015	Paid in Full	Jack
2015	Cats Dancing on Jupiter	Ben Cross
2015	Dogwalker's Christmas Tale, AA Dogwalker's Christmas Tale	Dean Stanton
2015	Submerged	Matt
2016	Do Over	Anthony Campana
2016	Deadly Retreat	Mike
2016	Modern Love	Christopher	In post-production
TBA	Day Six	Alex Parsons	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Dad	N/A	Episode: "Habadadery"
1998	Bill, TheThe Bill	Youth	Episode: "Racer"
2001-02	All My Children	JR Chandler	Role held: November 2001 - September 13, 2002
2002	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Kyle Fuller	Episode: "Deception"
2003	Boston Public	Ethan Guest	Episode: "Chapter Sixty-Three"
2004-05	Veronica Mars	Casey Gant	2 episodes
2005	Smallville	Kevin Grady	Episode: "Blank"
2007	Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, TheThe Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning	Bo Duke	Television film
2007	Cane	Brad	Episode: "Time Away"
2010	Elevator Girl	Nick Sweeney	Television film
2012	Fred: The Show	Lash Landridge	Episode: "Freddy and the Figglettes, Part 2"
2012	Holiday High School Reunion	Ben Oliver	Television film
2013	Wrong Woman, TheThe Wrong Woman	Ben	Television film
2014	Copycat	Himself (host)
2014	Sweet Surrender	Jerry	Television film
2014	Dancing with the Stars	Himself (contestant)	Finished in ninth place
2014	Christmas Kiss II, AA Christmas Kiss II	Sebastian	Television film
2015	Romantically Speaking	Nathan	Television film
2015-present	Cake Wars	Himself (host)
2016	Hit the Floor	Lucas	2 episodes
2016-present	Awkward	Ethan	5 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]