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Scranton | Culture > Entertainment

What You Didn’t Know About the “This is Us” Cast

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Kayleigh Basovsky Student Contributor, University of Scranton
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Grace Swords Student Contributor, University of Scranton
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Julia Zendell Student Contributor, University of Scranton
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Dania El-Ghazal Student Contributor, University of Scranton
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Scranton chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Mandy Moore (Rebecca Pearson)

  • Her birth name is Amanda Leigh Moore
  • She was discovered by a UPS employee who overheard her singing and gave her demo to a friend at Epic Records
  • She started a fashion line for tall women (she is 5’11)
  • She toured with NSYNC
  • Started her career as a singer, made her debut in acting in 2001 in the film Dr. Dolittle 2

Chrissy Mentz (Kate Pearson)

  • She only had 81 cents in her bank account before she got the gig as Kate in This Is Us
  • She majored in early childhood education at a community college in Gainesville Florida and aspired to be a teacher
  • Lived in Japan for 8 years
  • She sings in a band
  • She was on American Horror Story

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack Pearson)

  • He knew he wanted to be an actor when he was a teenager
  • He became a theater major at the University of California
  • He become famous from his character on Gilmore Girls  
  • He spends his free time working with vets through the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, his dad was a Vietnam Veteran
  • He does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol
  • He was born with a “crooked mouth” and had damaged nerves on the left side of his mouth, which caused the side of his mouth to become immobile.
  • He is a vegetarian

Stearling K. Brown (Randall Pearson)

  • He married his college sweetheart
  • He went to both NYU and Stanford
  • His celebrity crush is Sarah Paulson
  • He has two sons (a five-year-old and an 11-month-old)
  • He first studied economics in college before switching to acting

Chris Sullivan (Toby)

  • He trained as a competitive tennis player for 13 years
  • He initially gained fame for his role as Tom Cleary on the Steven Soderbergh-directed TV series The Knick
  • He was born in Palm Springs, California
  • He’s always wanted to be an actor and gave his first audition at 14
  • His first filmed performance was in a pilot with Jason Isaacs, which didn’t get picked up

Justin Hartley (Kevin Pearson)

  • Attended Southern Illinois University where he majored in theater and history
  • Although Hartley only recently became well known for his role in This is Us, his net worth is $5 million.
  • He loves yard work such as gardening
  • He has a 12-year-old daughter, Isabella

Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth Pearson)

  • Both of her parents were from Jamaica
  • She trained as a dancer
  • She was born in Brooklyn, New York
  • She’s won a Screen Actors Guild Award
  • She almost quit acting before accepting her role on This Is Us. She stated, “All of the sudden I just believed again, like, ‘I didn’t come this far for it not to happen. I’m going to enjoy this again.’ It’s the best thing I have to give. So I had to get my personal joy back, and then things started to change.”
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Dania El-Ghazal

Scranton '18

My whole biography realistically can't fit here so