'Dawson’s Creek' Star Joshua Jackson: See What the ’90s Heartthrob Looks Like Today

Early in his career, in 1992, Joshua Jackson took on the role of Charlie, a young hockey player wearing jersey number 96, in "The Mighty Ducks." The family film served as a springboard for his acting career and first brought him to the attention of North American audiences. With his short haircut and athletic build, he came across as the nice boy next door.

Starting in 1998, Joshua Jackson starred alongside James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes as the golden boy Pacey Witter in "Dawson's Creek." The series turned him into a teen idol overnight and shaped the outlook on life of an entire generation in the late ’90s. While filming, he was also romantically involved with his co-star Holmes.

During breaks from filming “Dawson’s Creek,” Joshua Jackson also made a name for himself in film in 1999, appearing alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe in “Cruel Intentions.” Further roles in “The Skulls” and “Gossip Girl” followed, cementing his reputation as a versatile young actor. By then, his image as a teen heartthrob had long been established.

In 2005, Joshua Jackson took a bold step and made his stage debut in London’s West End, alongside Patrick Stewart in David Mamet’s two-person play “A Life in the Theatre.” The production ran from February through April and was celebrated by critics and audiences alike. The ’90s TV heartthrob thus became a serious theater actor.

From 2008 to 2013, Joshua Jackson played the scientist Peter Bishop in the science fiction series “Fringe.” A short beard and a more mature sense of style accompanied his transition from teen heartthrob to adult character actor. The industry magazine BuddyTV listed him several times during those years among the most attractive men on TV.

In 2010, Joshua Jackson received the Genie Award for Best Actor for the Canadian film “One Week,” on which he also served as an executive producer. That same year, he organized the satirical Pacey-Con right across from Comic-Con as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to his former role as Pacey Witter. Its success demonstrated how far he had come from being merely a television personality to becoming a serious filmmaker.

As Cole Lockhart in the series “The Affair,” Joshua Jackson began showing a much darker side starting in 2014, a far cry from the smart teen charm of earlier years. The role of the married, emotionally torn man earned him new critical acclaim and ran through 2018. A beard also made the transformation into a mature character actor visually apparent.

In 2019, Joshua Jackson married actress Jodie Turner-Smith and, that same year, took on the role of public defender Mickey Joseph in the miniseries “When They See Us.” A year later, he starred alongside Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in “Little Fires Everywhere.”

In 2021, Joshua Jackson took on one of the darkest roles of his career as the convicted neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch in the series “Dr. Death,” for which he was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award. In 2023, he also took on the lead role in the series “Fatal Attraction” alongside Lizzy Caplan.

After his split from Jodie Turner-Smith in 2025 and roles such as the one in the series “Doctor Odyssey,” Joshua Jackson appears in 2026 as a mature man in his forties, with little trace of his former reputation as a ’90s heartthrob. It has been a long, steady transformation from the teen idol of “Dawson’s Creek” to a sought-after character actor. Anyone who compares his early television appearances with his current roles can see the complete transformation of a Hollywood career path.