Daren Kagasoff

Born in Encino, CA, Kagasoff was raised the middle child of a wholesale diamond dealer and a designer. The future actor said that helping his dad run his diamond business was the worst job he ever had. He attended San Francisco State University and studied business management, but he felt out of place the entire time he was there. Unsure of what to do with his life, Kagasoff eventually decided to drop out and pursue acting. He headed back home to Los Angeles, where he completed an eight-month long acting course to hone his craft. Kagasoff made his acting debut at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center's production of "SubUrbia," a play based on the 1996 feature film that starred Parker Posey and Giovanni Ribisi. The California native played the lead, Tim, an alcoholic slacker who struggles with the confines of living in the suburbs. In 2008, Kagasoff was cast in a starring role in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," a dramatic series that revolved around the unplanned pregnancy of a high school teen (Shailene Woodley). The show's creator, Brenda Hampton, picked Kagasoff out of hundreds who auditioned to play Ricky, a troubled teen preparing for the birth of his child, while at the same time, battling the dual demons of his promiscuity and an abusive past. Viewers would have never guessed it was his first major acting role. But Kagasoff played his character with a vulnerability and gritty realism that won him both critical and commercial praise, as well as a nomination at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV: Breakout Star Male.