Quantico

Season 1 Vuzu (*116) 18:00 & 19:00

Jake McLaughlin went from being an actual soldier in Baghdad to playing exMarine Ryan Booth on FBI-themed TV show Quantico (2015-current). And says the 33-year-old, “It helps me in my role because I bring some legitimacy to my character and I know more about the emotional aspect of him too.”

Jake joined the army in 2002 and 1

served for four years in different stations around Iraq. He was discharged in 2006 after a grenade explosion left him with serious back injuries. He went home and worked in construction.

After hearing about an audition 2

for a soldier in 2006, Jake tried out for the role of Specialist Gordon Bonner in 2007 drama film In The Valley Of Elah – he’d never acted before and thought “I’m gonna give this a shot and see what happens,” says Jake, who won the part.

It wasn’t his first taste of Holly3

wood though: before joining the army, Jake was a security guard at Universal Studios in LA. Plus, his uncle Kevin Gregg is a short-film producer and was involved with movies like Shakespeare’s Dead (2006) and Tea Ball (2010).

If you’re wondering, Jake does his 4

own stunts and knows how to take a knock. “If I feel like I can’t do something or don’t want to do it, then I will tell them that it won’t happen,” says Jake. “But that doesn’t happen a lot.”

His shirtless scenes have won him 5

loads of fans, but Jake’s off the market. He married housewife Stephanie McLaughlin in 2004 and they have two kids together: son Logan (10) and daughter Reagan (2). Stephanie has a 13-year-old daughter.

Jake unwinds with Japanese films, 6

like Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 movie The Hidden Fortress and 2000 posthumous film After The Rain.