Joshua David Duhamel ( də-MEL; born November 14, 1972) is an American actor. After working as a model, he made his acting debut as Leo du Pres on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award, and later starred as Danny McCoy on NBC's Las Vegas.
Duhamel has ventured into film, appearing as one of the main protagonists in four of the Transformers films, most recently in the fifth entry, Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). He has also appeared in When in Rome (2010), Life as We Know It (2010), New Year's Eve (2011), Safe Haven (2013), and You're Not You (2014). In 2015, Duhamel co-starred on the short-lived CBS crime drama Battle Creek. He has also starred in several video games, most notably Call of Duty: WWII (2017). In 2018, he appeared in the coming-of-age film Love, Simon. In 2021, Duhamel starred in the role of Sheldon Sampson in the Netflix superhero series Jupiter's Legacy. He also portrayed the role of Jacob Lee in the 2022 survival horror game The Callisto Protocol.
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Early life
Joshua David Duhamel was born on November 14, 1972, in Minot, North Dakota. His mother, Bonnie L. (Bachmeier) Kemper, is a retired teacher and local businesswoman, and his father, Larry Duhamel, is an advertising salesman. Duhamel's family is Catholic.
His parents divorced during his youth. He was raised by his mother and stepfather, George Kemper. He has a younger sister and two younger maternal half-sisters. After graduating from Minot High School in 1991, Duhamel attended Minot State University and played backup quarterback for the university's football team. He planned to attend dental school, but dropped out one-and-a-half credits shy of his undergraduate degree. He later completed his credits and received his degree in 2005.
Career
Duhamel has stated, "After college, I followed an ex-girlfriend to northern California, did a bunch of odd jobs." He won the title of Male Model of the Year in an International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) competition in 1997 (the runner-up was actor Ashton Kutcher).
Duhamel began his acting career as an extra in the music videos for Donna Summer's "I Will Go With You (Con te partirò)" and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" in 1999. Josh trained with Scott Sedita Acting Studios. Later that year, he won the role of Leo du Pres on the ABC soap opera All My Children. His work on the show, especially his character's pairing with Greenlee Smythe (portrayed by actress Rebecca Budig), garnered critical acclaim. In 2000, he posed fully nude for Greg Gorman's As I See It photography book.
In 2003, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for the Special Fan Award for America's Favorite Couple in 2002, shared with Budig, and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Leo du Pres. Duhamel left All My Children in 2002 to pursue other acting opportunities. In 2003, Duhamel landed a primetime role on the NBC show Las Vegas, playing the head of security for the Montecito Casino, Danny McCoy. His character succeeded James Caan's as head of the casino after Caan departed the series at the end of the fourth season. The series ended in 2008.
Duhamel made his big-screen acting debut in 2004's Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, then starred in the thriller Turistas (2006). After watching an episode of Las Vegas in which Duhamel's character had just returned from the war in Iraq, Steven Spielberg handpicked him for the role of Captain William Lennox in 2007's summer blockbuster film Transformers (a film for which Spielberg was the executive producer). Duhamel reprised the role in three of the sequels: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, released in June 2009, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, released in June 2011, and Transformers: The Last Knight, released in June 2017.
Duhamel was the official pace car driver for the 2009 Indianapolis 500, driving the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro pace car. In 2010, he played the lead role in the film When in Rome as Nick Beamon. In 2014 Duhamel starred in the touching drama You're Not You playing the husband of Kate (Hilary Swank), who has the degenerative disease ALS.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Duhamel met and began dating singer Stacy Ann Ferguson, better known as Fergie, in September 2004 after she appeared on Las Vegas with her then-band, The Black Eyed Peas. The couple married on January 10, 2009, in a Catholic ceremony at the Church Estate Vineyards in Malibu, California. They have a son born in August 2013. In September 2017, the couple announced that they had separated earlier in the year. In June 2019, they filed for divorce after two years of separation. Their divorce was finalized in November 2019.
In 2018, Duhamel began dating former Miss World America Audra Mari. The couple married on September 10, 2022. They have a son born in January 2024 and a daughter born in May 2026.
Interests and politics
Duhamel is a practicing Catholic and attends church regularly.
On April 8, 2016, Duhamel posted a selfie wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of Doug Burgum, then a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of North Dakota in the 2016 election. On June 28, 2023, Duhamel endorsed Burgum, then governor of North Dakota, in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primary. In an Instagram story, Duhamel wrote, "I don't normally get involved in politics, but Governor Burgum has become a good friend over the years and I can't think of anyone better than him to be our president."
Residence
Duhamel owns two cabins in Minnesota. In October 2023, in an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, he said, "And the older I got, the more I wanted to come back here [to North Dakota]." He described his lake house as a place where he "can get back to being who I really am."
In the media
In 2012, Duhamel was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame, a signature event of Norsk Høstfest. On May 19, 2022, Minot State University named their Summer Theatre stage the "Josh Duhamel Stage" in his honor.
Other ventures
In 2005, he became the co-owner of 10 North Main, a restaurant in Minot, North Dakota.
Duhamel is a spokesman for North Dakota tourism and has appeared in promotional videos for the state over the past decade. In 2022, Duhamel was paid $75,000 to become the face of the state's tourism campaign for the next two years.
