Colton Haynes

Early life

Colton Lee Haynes was born in Andale, Kansas, the son of Dana Denise Mitchell and William Clayton Haynes. He has described his parents as "free-spirited hippies." Haynes has five siblings, including brothers Clinton and Joshua, and a sister, Willow. He grew up on a farm in Andale and has also lived in Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas and Florida. He attended Navarre High School in Florida, Andale High School in Kansas and graduated from Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz, Texas.

Career

Haynes began his career as a model at the age of fifteen in New York City, New York. He subsequently appeared in a Bruce Weber photo shoot for Abercrombie & Fitch. Afterward, Haynes began modeling in campaigns for Kira Plastinina, J. C. Penney, and Ralph Lauren. In 2008, Haynes continued modeling in campaigns such as Verizon and also appeared in numerous magazine editorials such as Teen Vogue and Arena.

He made an uncredited appearance in the 2007 blockbuster Transformers. He also appeared on CSI: Miami and The Hills. In addition to guest roles, in April 2007 Haynes acted in My Chemical Romance's music video for their single "I Don't Love You," directed by Marc Webb. Later that year, Haynes auditioned for the role of Edward Cullen in the film version of Stephenie Meyer's young adult novel, Twilight. Robert Pattinson was cast instead.

In 2008, he appeared on the television series, Privileged and Pushing Daisies. He played Scott Holland in the Hallmark Channel film, Always and Forever. Filming began in December 2008, and the film was released to television on October 24, 2009.

It was announced in 2009 that Haynes had won the role of Shane in the Showtime series Look, based on the 2007 film of the same name. "I play a 17-year-old asshole. The show is very racy with lots of nudity, sex, drugs and real life experiences that will shock audiences," Haynes said in an interview. The show premiered in 2010 and was cancelled after its first season. In March 2010, filming began for the ABC television series, The Gates, in which Haynes portrays Brett Crezski, a jock who begins to turn into a werewolf. The series premiered on June 20, 2010. The show was short-lived and was cancelled after its first season. Afterwards he landed the role of Jackson Whittemore in the MTV series, Teen Wolf, based on the 1985 film of the same name.

On October 11, 2012, Haynes tweeted, "These past few years have been the best of my life. I'm sad that this chapter has ended, but excited for a new one to begin. Thx for the love," leaving fans of Teen Wolf confused. The next day it was announced that he would be leaving the show. He was a recurring member on the hit CW show Arrow, playing Roy Harper, a street thug who idolizes the Arrow and later becomes his protegé, Arsenal. Haynes was upgraded to series regular status on Arrow for season two. Haynes left the series at the end of season three, but made a guest appearance in the season four episode "Unchained".

In September 2012, he was the lead in Leona Lewis's music video "Trouble," where he played the part of her boyfriend.

In July 2013, he starred in Victoria Justice's music video "Gold." In December 2014, he also made a cameo appearance in Andy Grammer's music video, Honey, I'm Good. That same year, he released some snippets to various covers of songs he had done. Colton started to further his career by singing, something he has loved to do since he was little. In November, he covered a song called "19 You+Me" with New Heights. In December 2013, he released a single with fellow singer Travis-Atreo called "Baby It's Christmas."

In 2014, Haynes made a return to his roots by participating in Abercrombie & Fitch's "Making of a Star" campaign. As a result, photography of Haynes shot by iconic photographer Bruce Weber was featured in A&F stores worldwide.

Haynes' first credited feature film role was in the 2015 film San Andreas.

In June 2017, Haynes joined the cast for American Horror Story.

Personal life

Haynes has struggled with anxiety all his life; in January 2016, after years of public speculation concerning his "secret gay past," an off-the-cuff response he made on Tumblr regarding a comment on photos that appeared in gay lifestyle magazine XY a decade before was taken by many media outlets as confirmation of his coming out. Not yet ready to speak openly about his sexual orientation, the renewed attention led Haynes to seek treatment for his anxiety for the next three months. He later publicly came out as gay in an interview in Entertainment Weekly in May 2016.

Haynes and celebrity florist Jeff Leatham became engaged on March 11, 2017.