Early life

Van Holt was born in Waukegan, Illinois

Waukegan, Illinois

Waukegan is a city and county seat of Lake County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 87,901. The 2010 population was 89,078. It is the ninth-largest city in Illinois by population...

 and raised in California. Despite his Dutch surname, he is of mainly Scotch-Irish ancestry. Van Holt has a degree in Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 from UCLA. At 18 years of age, he struck the perfect image of a Huntington Beach, California surfer. Discovered first by producer Stephen Douglas ("Redhead Encyclopedia", "Matt Sorum") in front of a GAP store in a strip mall, Douglas invited him to participate in a sportswear modeling contest he was promoting. Van Holt won the contest, beating over 200 other participants and Douglas signed him to the Jack Rose Agency in Hollywood.

Career

Van Holt did a few print ads and commercials as a model over the next seven years, but then began to be cast in several movies and TV series beginning with A Very Brady Sequel

A Very Brady Sequel

A Very Brady Sequel is a 1996 comedy film and sequel to 1995’s The Brady Bunch Movie. Both films are parodies-homages of the classic 1969–1974 television sitcom The Brady Bunch. The film was directed by Arlene Sanford and stars Shelley Long and Gary Cole as Carol and Mike Brady. The film was a box...

in 1996 followed by episodes in LA Johns, Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...

, Spin City

Spin City

Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...

, Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

, Martial Law

Martial Law (TV series)

Martial Law was a TV crime drama that ran on CBS from 1998 to 2000, and was created by Carlton Cuse. The title character, Sammo Law, portrayed by Sammo Hung, was a Chinese law officer and martial arts expert who came to Los Angeles in search of a colleague and remains in the US.The show was a...

, and Sex and the City

Sex and the City

Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...

. He then hit his stride in a string of martial-themed, A-list films beginning with Black Hawk Down and Windtalkers

Windtalkers

Windtalkers is a 2002 action war film directed by John Woo. Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater star as two US Marine sergeants assigned to protect Navajo code talkers in Saipan during World War II.-Plot:World War II Sgt...

, interspersed with Confidence, and continuing with Basic

Basic (film)

Basic is a 2003 American/German thriller film directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen and Samuel L. Jackson.-Plot:...

and S.W.A.T.

S.W.A.T. (film)

S.W.A.T. is a 2003 action-crime film directed by Clark Johnson, and is based on the 1975 television series of the same name. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, LL Cool J and Michelle Rodriguez. It was produced by Neal H...

. He also appeared in Season 2, Episode 1 of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?

He has since appeared in Man of the House

Man of the House (2005 comedy film)

Man of the House is a 2005 crime comedy film directed by Stephen Herek, written by John J. McLaughlin and Scott Lobdell, and starring Tommy Lee Jones. The main plot revolves around Lt...

, House of Wax

House of Wax (2005 film)

House of Wax is a 2005 horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. It shares the name of a 1953 horror film, which was a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum. It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success...

, and the short-lived CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 TV series Threshold

Threshold (TV series)

Threshold was a science fiction drama television series that first aired on CBS in September 2005. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the series focuses on a secret government project investigating the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.The series was first...

. Brian revisited his surfer roots when he was cast in David Milch

David Milch

David S. Milch is an American writer and producer of television series. He has created several television shows, including NYPD Blue and Deadwood.-Biography:...

's HBO series John from Cincinnati

John from Cincinnati

John from Cincinnati is an American television drama, set against the surfing community of Imperial Beach, California, that aired on HBO from June 10, 2007 to August 12, 2007. It is the result of a collaborative effort between writer/producer David Milch and author Kem Nunn, whose novels have been...

as Butchie Yost, son of surfing legend Mitch Yost. He also played Kyle Hobart in the TV series Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California...

. Van Holt also guest starred in the hit show CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

.

In 2008, Van Holt had a small role, as himself (an actor) playing a firefighter, in the fifth season of the HBO dramedy series Entourage

Entourage (TV series)

Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...

. He appeared in the episodes "Pie

Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....

" and "Seth Green Day."

In June 2009, he appeared as Harlan in the season 3 premiere of Burn Notice

Burn notice

A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

.

Brian currently appears on the hit series Cougar Town

Cougar Town

Cougar Town is an American television sitcom that premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The series focuses on a recently divorced woman in her forties facing the often humorous challenges, pitfalls and rewards of life's next chapter, along with her son, ex-husband, and friends who together make...

as Bobby Cobb, the good-natured ex-husband of lead character Jules Cobb.

External links