Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Connell, born February 17, 1974, is an American actor, known for his roles as Quinn Mallory in the television series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the movie Stand by Me, Frank Cushman in Jerry Maguire, Derek in Scream 2, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan. Take a look below for 27 more awesome and interesting facts about Jerry O’Connell.

1. O’Connell starred as Pete Kaczmarek in the CBS TV series The Defenders until its cancellation in 2011.

2. He was born in Manhattan, the son of Linda, an art teacher, and Michael O’Connell, an advertising agency art director.

3. His maternal grandfather, Charles S. Witkowski, was mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey.

4. O’Connell is of half Irish, one quarter Italian, and one quarter Polish ancestry.

5. He was raised in Manhattan with his younger brother, actor Charlie O’Connell.

6. As a teenager, he attended Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School.

7. He attended New York University from 1991 to 1995, majoring in film. While there, he studied screen writing and competed on the fencing team, serving a stint as captain of the sabre squad. He graduated in 1995.

8. He played the “heartbreaker” in Mariah Carey’s “Heartbreaker” video. The single went on to become Mariah’s 14th number 1 hit.

9. O’Connell was signed by an agent at the age of 10 and was discovered gobbling up cookies in a Duncan Hines commercial.

10. While practicing his lines for Stand by Me, he was completely impressed that, as an 11 year old, he was being allowed to swear.

11. O’Connell still hates talking about Stand by Me because he was overweight at the time.

12. He married his girlfriend of two and a half years, Rebecca Romijn, in a surprise backyard ceremony. The couple exchanged vows in front of 100 family and friends that thought that they had been invited to a barbecue.

13. On December 28, 2008, Rebecca and Jerry welcomed fraternal twin daughters, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip.

14. He participated in the annual Drambuie Pursuit in Scotland. The Drambuie Pursuit takes place once a year and includes an archery contest on the first day and then a second day that includes kayaking, a castle run, boating, mountain biking, rock-climbing, rafting, cross country biking, off-road buggy racing and canoeing.

15. It wasn’t until 10 years after costarring in Stand by Me, before Jerry O’Connell got his first starring movie role as Joe in the cult classic Joe’s Apartment. This is the only feature film the late Don Ho ever acted in and the first ever feature film produced by MTV Networks.

16. Because of his cameo in Scary Movie 5, spoofing the Shades of Grey novels, he’s technically the first person to have played Christian Grey in feature film.

17. O’Connell starred in the Canadian science fiction sitcom My Secret Identity from 1988 to 1991 as the teen hero who develops superhuman traits.

18. During a summer break from New York University, Jerry starred in the feature film Calendar Girl alongside Jason Priestley and Gabriel Olds.

19. In his junior year at New York University, O’Connell auditioned for the television pilot Sliders, which was also filmed in Canada.

20. After weeks of officially stating that the couple were trying to get pregnant, a publicist for O’Connell and Romijn confirmed that Romijn was pregnant with twin girls.

21. O’Connell enrolled i Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles in August 2009, but dropped out to return to acting full-time.

22. In April 2015, O’Connell returned to Broadway as a ghostwriter in the comedy Living on Love, with Renee Fleming, Anna Chlumsky and Douglas Sills. It closed after 37 performances.

23. O’Connell appeared on Broadway at the Golden Theater in Seminar, written by Theresa Rebeck. The play, directed by Sam Gold, opened on November 20, 2011, starring Alan Rickman, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater and Hettienne Park.

24. O’Connell co-starred with David Tennant in the pilot for the legal drama Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, which was not picked up for production.

25. He appeared in the 2009 thriller movie Obsessed as “Ben”, the best friend and co-worker of the movie’s protagonist Derek Charles.

26. He appeared in Eastwick on ABC, on which his wife, Rebecca Romijn, starred in the series.