Paul Thomas Wasilewski (born July 23, 1982), known professionally as Paul Wesley, is an American actor, best known for his roles Stefan Salvatore in The CW TV series The Vampire Diaries and as Aaron Corbett in the ABC Family miniseries Fallen.
Wesley was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey to Polish parents Agnieszka and Thomas Wasilewski, and grew up in Marlboro, New Jersey. He has one older sister, Monika, and two younger sisters, Julia and Leah. In addition to English, he also knows Polish, having spent four months every year in Poland until the age of 16.
Wesley attended Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey and Marlboro High School for a period during his high school years. During his junior year in high school, Wesley was cast in the soap opera Guiding Light as character Max Nickerson. He transferred from Marlboro High School to Lakewood Prep School in Howell, New Jersey because the school was able to accommodate his acting schedule. He graduated from there in 2000 and then started college at Rutgers but left after one semester with his parents' support when more roles were offered to him and he realized he could make a career out of acting.
In 2005, he began to credit himself as Paul Wesley. When asked why he changed his professional name to Paul Wesley, he replied: "my birthname is too hard to pronounce! I asked my family's permission to change it, and it really helped my career."
He enjoys playing ice hockey and snowboarding. Wesley has also expressed an interest in directing and writing.
He has had a number of roles on shows such as 24, 8 Simple Rules, American Dreams, Army Wives, Cane, Everwood, Guiding Light, Smallville, The O.C. and Wolf Lake. He also starred opposite Amber Tamblyn in CBS' The Russell Girl and had the lead role in Fallen miniseries.
Wesley is currently starring as vampire Stefan Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries which premiered September 2009 on The CW.
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