Thomas Alexander Dekker (born December 28, 1987) is an American actor, musician, singer, director and producer. He is known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Adam Conant on The Secret Circle, and Zach on Heroes.
Dekker did the voice of Littlefoot in The Land Before Time V-IX (singing voice in The Land Before Time V) and as Fievel Mousekewitz in An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster. He played Jesse Braun in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Smith in Gregg Araki's film Kaboom. Dekker starred as Gregory Valentine in the TV show Backstrom.
He has also written and produced two albums.
Early life
Dekker was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. His mother, Hilary (née Williams), is a concert pianist, acting coach, actor, and singer from Wales, and his late father, David John Ellis Dekker, was an American artist, set designer, opera singer, and actor of English and Dutch ancestry. His maternal grandfather was Alun Williams, a radio broadcaster for the British Broadcasting Corporation. As a child, he and his parents moved all over the world, including his mother's native United Kingdom and Canada.
Career
Early career
Starting his acting career at age six, Dekker was first seen in the soap The Young and the Restless. He then appeared in Star Trek Generations, two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and the film Village of the Damned (1995). Dekker also appeared as a child actor on Seinfeld (season 5, episode 16, 1994) and as Bobby (season 7, episode 4, 1995). In 1997, he became a regular on the Disney Channel show Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show which is based on the movie of the same name where he played Nick Szalinski for three years. After the show ended in 2000, he went on to appear in Run of the House, Fillmore!, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, House, Boston Public, Reba and 7th Heaven. He appeared in films such as Campus Confidential and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster. Dekker has won three Young Artist Awards for his work in The Land Before Time films and one for his guest appearance on Boston Public. In 2001, he played the part of young Donny Osmond in the film Inside the Osmonds.
2006–present
In 2006, Dekker landed a recurring role on Heroes playing the character of Zach (Claire Bennet's best friend). He played Zach for eleven episodes before leaving Heroes to take a starring role in Fox's new show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as John Connor, starring opposite Lena Headey and Summer Glau. That show debuted January 13, 2008 and was canceled on May 18, 2009. Dekker also played the lead character Nate Palmer in the web-based science fiction series IQ-145.
In 2009, Dekker appeared in From Within (filmed in 2007), My Sister's Keeper, a drama in which he starred with Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin, Abigail Breslin and Medium star Sofia Vassilieva, and Laid to Rest alongside Lena Headey. In 2010, Dekker starred in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, released on April 30, 2010. His character's name was Jesse Braun, loosely based on the character Rod Lane in the original. That same year he also had a role in All About Evil, an indie horror film.
Dekker starred in Gregg Araki's Kaboom (2010). It is the first film ever awarded the Cannes Film Festival "Queer Palm Award" for its contribution to LGBT presence in cinema. Dekker was a "top candidate" for the lead role in Paramount's remake of Footloose (2011), but the role went to Kenny Wormald. In April 2011, Dekker starred as Lance Loud in the HBO original film Cinema Verite, about the creation of America's first reality television series, An American Family. Dekker played the role of Adam, the male lead on the television series The Secret Circle developed by The CW.
He appeared in Daughtry's music video for their single "Waiting for Superman", which was released September 17, 2013.
Dekker was a regular on the 2015 Fox crime drama Backstrom, playing Gregory Valentine, the gay underworld contact and roommate of Rainn Wilson's title character, revealed to be his half-brother.
Music
Dekker was brought up with a musical background, and started writing music at age ten while living in Canada. At the age of fifteen he landed a record deal; however after feeling that he wasn't as involved in the music as he would have liked, he left to concentrate on making his own music. At the age of sixteen, Dekker started writing and producing his own classical music influenced by electronica which he describes as "electrofolk". His debut album Psyanotic was released in 2008.