Alan Ritchson has carved a space for himself on both the large and small screens since he made the trek from a small town in Florida to Los Angeles. Alan Michael Ritchson was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Vickie (Harrell), a high school teacher, and David Ritchson, a U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant. He is of Czech, English, and German descent. Frequently relocating as the middle son of a military family, Alan learned to adapt and entertain in order to build friendships in new and unfamiliar environments. Certainly this has been a key ingredient in his success so far in the industry. Alan's early credits include portraying Aquaman in the long running series Smallville. This marked the first portrayal of the superhero in an officially licensed live-action production. Ritchson has also taken on grittier leading man roles in the independent film market with the modern-day western "Rex" and the dramatic love story of "Steam" alongside Ally Sheedy. In contrast, he also made quite a comedic impression with his love-to-hate-him character of Thad Castle on the football comedy Blue Mountain State. He parlayed his comedic skills to work with Rebel Wilson in her CBS pilot Super Fun Night. In addition to his acting repertoire, Alan also writes, produces and is a singer/songwriter. Most recently Alan has can be seen as the District 1 victor, Gloss, in Catching Fire; the second installment of the hugely successful Hunger Games franchise. He also portrayed the cool-but-crude Raphael in the Michael Bay produced reboot of TMNT.