A certified teen idol due to his role on The WB's hit teen drama "Dawson's Creek" (1998- ), James Van Der Beek had a rockier road to success than his younger co-stars. After a football injury took him from the playing field to the stage, the young actor starred as Danny Zuko in a community theater production of "Grease". Weekly trips to New York from his Connecticut home to audition were largely fruitless, but in 1994 Van Der Beek was cast in an Off-Broadway production of Edward Albee's "Finding the Sun". A capable singer as well as actor, he was also featured in the Goodspeed Opera House's revival of the musical "Shenandoah".
Van Der Beek made his film debut as a bully in 1995's "Angus", a film better known for its soundtrack than its box office performance. With a revised storyline that Van Der Beek asserts "castrated" the initial vision of the film, "Angus" fizzled out, and didn't prove to be the stepping stone to higher profile roles that the young actor expected. Work in the little-seen independent "I Love You, I Love You Not" (1997) came next, with Van Der Beek playing another unsavory character in this drama starring Jude Law and Claire Danes.
In the midst of a career lull, Van Der Beek enrolled at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. It was while attending school here that he auditioned for the part of Dawson Leery, a sensitive, earnest and exceptionally well spoken high school sophomore in Kevin Williamson's "Dawson's Creek". At Williamson's reported insistence that they had found the only possible Dawson in Van Der Beek, the young actor was hired, ending his career pause for what could feasibly be a long while. Playing the idealistic Spielberg-obsessed teenager torn between his affection for his best friend Joey, a young girl on the brink of womanhood, and mysterious new girl Jen, a more experienced and troubled New York City transplant, he gained critical as well as popular notice. Tall, with blondish All-American looks, Van Der Beek quickly became a pin-up favorite among the younger audience.
With the show's success came an enormous fan base and increased opportunities for the performer, who took the lead role in 1999's surprise hit "Varsity Blues". As Jonathan 'Mox' Moxon, a Texas high school football hero with things on his mind besides the game (much to his coach's dismay), Van Der Beek took on a more physically challenging role than that of Dawson, and with a different look and accent, strove to separate himself from the fictional Massachusetts teenager. The film spent two weeks at number one, undoubtedly fueled by his overwhelming popularity. 1999 also saw the release of "Harvest", an independent drama featuring the young actor in a supporting role, filmed before his television success. Van Der Beek's healthy outlook on his celebrity status, his appreciation for the opportunities afforded him, and his marked dedication to his craft would help the young actor transcend his heartthrob image and emerge as a strong performer and compelling box office draw.
In 2002, Van Der Beek portrayed Sean, a coke-selling, thrill seeking loner who falls head-over-hills for a woman who is involved with bad boy Victor, played by Kip Pardue, in the thriller feature "Rules Of Attraction", based on Brett Easton Ellis's novel "Rules Of Attraction."