Wes Chatham

Early life

Wes Chatham was born October 11, 1978 and grew up in North Georgia. Chatham's parents divorced when he was two and he spent most of his childhood with his mother, sister and brother. On a whim, Chatham's mother took his sister to an audition for a Tide commercial in Savannah, Georgia, and brought Wes along. While waiting for his sister in the lobby, Wes was spotted by the casting director and, at the age of five, he was offered a national campaign for Tide.

At the age of thirteen, Chatham moved in with his father and, without a lot of supervision and as a restless and rebellious teen, he was kicked out of high school and sent to the Give Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia, to finish school. The Give Center was a second chance school for troubled youth, offering very small classes. While he was attending classes at the Give Center, a professional theater company out of Atlanta started a mentoring program with the school, and Chatham was chosen to write a play that was later performed by his classmates. It was from this experience that he found his passion for the arts.

Career

After graduating from high school, Chatham joined the military. He worked as an aviation firefighter on the flight deck of the USS Essex, working in crash and salvage for four years. Chatham's break into acting came just three months before his tour was finished when Denzel Washington chose his ship to shoot the movie Antwone Fisher. Chatham was amongst those selected by casting director Robi Reed while Reed was searching for authentic-looking military personnel for the movie. This was Chatham's first movie-making experience, which led to further pursuit of his lifelong dream of acting. Following Antwone Fisher, Reed convinced Chatham to move to Hollywood and shortly thereafter cast him in his first series regular role on Showtime’s Barbershop.

Chatham gained further attention when Paul Haggis cast him alongside Tommy Lee Jones as Corporal Steve Penning in In the Valley of Elah. In 2009, Chatham went on to work with Oliver Stone in W. as Frank Benedict, George W’s fraternity brother. The following year, Chatham landed another series regular role on the hit CBS TV show The Unit. Chatham was cast as new unit team member Sergeant Sam McBride (aka Whiplash), working with David Mamet and Shawn Ryan. Chatham also starred as Brian Danielson in Brett Simmons’ Husk (2011).

Chatham portrayed Carlton Phelan, Emma Stone's character’s brother, in the 2011 film The Help. The cast won a 2012 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2012, Chatham landed his first title role in Joel Silver’s The Philly Kid. A fan of mixed martial arts, Chatham dove into the character of Dillion McGwire, performing all of his own stunts. The film debuted in theaters May 2012. Following The Philly Kid, Chatham starred in This Thing With Sarah, which was accepted to the San Diego Film Festival in October 2013. In 2013 Chatham wrapped two studio films, Broken Horses (2013) and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014).

In November 2015, Chatham began costarring as Amos Burton on the Syfy TV series The Expanse.

Personal life

Chatham is married to TV personality Jenn Brown.