Sam Jaeger

Sam Jaeger was an American actor who was best known for playing stay-at-home dad Joel Graham on the comedy-drama "Parenthood" (NBC 2010-15). Born and raised in the small Ohio suburb of Perrysburg, Jaeger grew up about as far away from Hollywood as one could be. Still, ever since he was young, he always dreamt of making his living as an actor. When it came time to enter college, Jaeger enrolled in Otterbein College, where he studied acting. During his four years at Otterbein, Jaeger honed his craft by performing in numerous stage plays in and around the university. He graduated from the college in 1999, and soon after moved to New York to pursue acting in earnest. To make ends meet, Jaeger took a job at a casting office, which gave him the freedom and flexibility to go on auditions. He nabbed his first guest spot on long-running procedural "Law & Order" (NBC 1990-2010), while appearing in various Off-Broadway plays. After a few years in New York, however, Jaeger decided to pack it up and head to Hollywood. It didn't take him very long before he started nabbing guest spots on "The West Wing" (NBC, 1999-2006) and "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), as well as small roles in the films "Hart's War" (2002) and "Blood Work" (2002). In 2002, Jaeger appeared in his first recurring TV role on "Girls Club" (FOX, 2002), but the show was quickly cancelled during its first season due to low ratings. Undeterred, Jaeger continued to appear in mostly TV guest spots throughout the remainder of the 2000s, before landing his big break in 2010 on "Parenthood." Jaeger played Joel Graham, a stay-at-home-dad, on all 103 episodes of the show, which ended its six-season run in the winter of 2015.