Justin Chambers

Justin Willman Chambers is an American actor and former model best known for his role as Dr. Alex Karev on the ABC medical drama series Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2020. Before achieving widespread recognition in television acting, he established a international modeling career after being discovered by a scout in Paris.

Chambers was born on July 11, 1970, in Springfield, Ohio, to Pamela Sue and John William Eugene Chambers II, who both worked as deputy sheriffs. Raised in Springfield alongside his fraternal twin brother, an older brother, and two older sisters, he and his twin suffered from persistent bouts of pneumonia that required frequent hospitalizations during childhood. He attended Southeastern High School in South Charleston, Ohio, and initially aspired to become a dentist before shifting his focus to performance.

His career began when a modeling scout discovered him on the Paris Metro. He subsequently starred in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein fragrances and modeled across Europe, Japan, and the United States for brands including Calvin Klein, Armani, and Dolce & Gabbana. In the early 1990s, Chambers moved to New York City to pursue acting, studying for four years at HB Studio and Ron Stetson Studios.

Chambers made his first major acting appearance in the 1995 Dave Matthews Band music video for "Ants Marching." He transitioned into television with recurring and regular roles in soap operas such as Another World, New York Undercover, and Four Corners, as well as television films including Harvest of Fire, Rose Hill, and Seasons of Love. He made his feature film debut in the 1999 comedy-drama Liberty Heights, followed by roles in films such as The Wedding Planner, The Musketeer, Southern Belles, The Zodiac, and Hysterical Blindness, as well as a short stint on the crime drama Cold Case.

In August 2004, Chambers was cast as surgical intern Alex Karev in Grey's Anatomy. His long-running portrayal became one of the series' most prominent roles, and he also made a guest appearance on the spin-off series Private Practice in 2009. Chambers officially announced his exit from Grey's Anatomy in January 2020, with his final regular episode having aired in November 2019 and a farewell episode airing in March 2020.

For his work on Grey's Anatomy, Chambers won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2006 and the People's Choice Award for Best TV Network Drama Actor in 2017. Following his departure from the medical drama, he played actor Marlon Brando in the 2022 Paramount+ series The Offer and appeared in a 2024 episode of the anthology series Accused.

In 1993, Chambers married former model agency booker Keisha Chambers, with whom he has five children. Outside of acting, he has been involved with the Pentecostal Christian Church mission Dream Center of Los Angeles and practices hot yoga.