Jackson's father is from Texas, and his mother is a native of Ballyfermot, Ireland, having immigrated to North America in the late 1960s.
He has a younger sister, Aisleagh, and two older half brothers, Jonathan and Lyman.
He was raised Catholic.
Jackson lived in California until the age of 8.
He moved to Vancouver with his mother and younger sister.
He attended Ideal Mini School and later switched to Kitsilano Secondary School.
He attended high school with actor Ryan Reynolds.
In an interview with The New York Times, Jackson said he was kicked out of high school once because of The Jon Stewart Show: "[The show] played, at least where I grew up, at 1:30 in the morning, so I would stay up at night to watch Jon Stewart, but then I'd be too tired—or too lazy—to go to school in the morning. So I'd just take the first couple of classes off, 'cause I wanted to be fresh when I got there."
1978
Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is a Canadian actor.
Jackson was born on June 11, 1978, in Vancouver to parents John and Fiona.
His mother is a casting director.
1991
Jackson started acting in a small role in the film Crooked Hearts in 1991.
The next year, he played the role of Charlie in a musical version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
At this point, with the help of the play's casting director Laura Kennedy, he joined the William Morris Agency.
Soon after, he landed the role of Charlie (#96) in The Mighty Ducks series, playing a young and aspiring hockey player.
1992
Outside of television, Jackson came to prominence playing Charlie Conway in the Mighty Ducks film series (1992–1996).
1998
He is known for his portrayals of Pacey Witter on The WB's teen drama Dawson's Creek (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in the Fox science fiction series Fringe (2008–2013), Cole Lockhart on Showtime's The Affair (2014–2018), Dan Gallagher in the Paramount+ series Fatal Attraction, and Dr. Christopher Duntsch in the Peacock crime drama series Dr. Death (2021).
For the latter, he was nominated for the 2022 Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Limited Series.
His other film appearances include Apt Pupil (1998), Urban Legend (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), The Skulls (2000), Gossip (2000), The Safety of Objects (2001), The Laramie Project (2002), Cursed (2005), Bobby (2006), and Shutter (2008).
Jackson went on to appear as Pacey Witter on Dawson's Creek, which was created by Kevin Williamson and ran on the WB network from 1998 to 2003, and also starred James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams, and Katie Holmes.
While the show was on hiatus, he appeared in several movies including Cruel Intentions (an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses that also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe), The Skulls, The Safety of Objects, The Laramie Project and a short cameo in the remake of Ocean's Eleven in which he appears as himself in a poker scene with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Holly Marie Combs.
2000
In 2000, he also guest-starred in Season 12 of The Simpsons, voicing the character of Jesse Grass, a "hunky environmentalist" and love interest for Lisa Simpson in the episode "Lisa the Tree Hugger".
He also was cast as "Beau" in the movie Gossip in 2000 with actors James Marsden, Kate Hudson and Norman Reedus.
2003
Shortly after Dawson's Creek ended in 2003, Jackson played the lead role in films alongside Dennis Hopper (Americano), Harvey Keitel (Shadows in the Sun), and Donald Sutherland (Aurora Borealis).
2005
In 2005, Jackson moved to the UK and made his stage debut on the London West End with Patrick Stewart in David Mamet's two-man play, A Life in the Theatre.
The play was a critical and popular success, and ran from February to April of that year.
Jackson said that he would consider returning to the stage, to try his hand on Broadway.
His next film role was in Bobby, directed by Emilio Estevez, Jackson's co-star from The Mighty Ducks.
He played a lead role in Shutter, a U.S. remake of film of the same name.
2008
For his performance in the Canadian independent drama One Week (2008), Jackson won the 2010 Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
From 2008 to 2013, Jackson played the lead role of Peter Bishop in the science-fiction series Fringe, created by JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
The serieswas the second-highest rated new show of the 2008–2009 season after The Mentalist.
2009
He starred and acted as executive producer in the Canadian independent film One Week, which opened on March 6, 2009.
2010
BuddyTV ranked him #9 on its "TV's 100 Sexiest Men of 2010" list, #19 in 2011 and #14 in 2012.
Jackson was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for the film One Week.
He won the award on April 12, 2010.
He held and hosted the satirical Pacey-Con in 2010, directly across the street from the Comic-Con, sporting a bowling shirt and giving out fan fiction, written by Dawson's Creek fans, to those waiting in the Comic-Con entrance line.
Footage of the event was recorded for a video, entitled 'Pacey-Con', which he was filming for Will Ferrell's Funny or Die celebrity humor website.
2013
In 2013, Jackson appeared in the IFC film Inescapable with Marisa Tomei and Alexander Siddig.
2019
His other credits include When They See Us (2019), and Little Fires Everywhere (2020).
