Acting
West struggled to land acting work for two years and resided at his manager's house before making his acting debut in 1995, playing Dave Lattimore in the CBS drama Picket Fences (season 4, episode 6, "Heart of Saturday Night")
In 1998, West guest-starred in several television series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and played Mark Tapper in the stage production of The Cider House Rules. He landed his first major role in 1999 in the ABC family drama Once and Again, playing Eli Sammler for three seasons. West's feature film debut was in Liberty Heights, a film about a Jewish family in Baltimore, directed by Barry Levinson. He also co-starred in teen comedies Whatever It Takes (2000) and Get Over It (2001).
West was cast as Landon Carter opposite singer and actress Mandy Moore in 2002's adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel A Walk to Remember. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times found him "quietly convincing". His performance in the film earned him a Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry with Moore. He also appeared in the Mandy Moore music video "Cry". That year, West won the Young Hollywood Award Male Superstar of Tomorrow.
In 2003, West starred as an adult version of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen alongside Sean Connery. A year later, he joined the cast of the NBC medical drama, ER in the eleventh-season premiere, playing resident Ray Barnett. In May 2007, West left ER at the end of the thirteenth season after winning a role in Supreme Courtships, but the series was not picked up by the Fox Network. In October 2008, West returned to ER for three episodes during its fifteenth and final season.
During hiatus between seasons of ER, West worked on shooting What We Do Is Secret, an independent film, which premiered at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival after much delay. West helped to finance it. In the film, he portrays Darby Crash, a member of the 1970s punk band the Germs. Members of the band were so impressed by West's performance that they re-formed the band with West taking the deceased Crash's place. West received positive reviews for his portrayal in the movie; the San Francisco Chronicle stated that he is the one who "lifts the entire film to a whole other level". Similarly, The Seattle Times wrote that his impersonation was "worth saluting" while TV Guide called it "pretty impressive". In 2008, he received the Rising Star Award in Philadelphia Film Festival for his work in What We Do is Secret.
West starred as Michael Bishop in The CW spy drama Nikita from 2010 to 2013. In 2014, he began starring in the WGN America adventure/historical/fantasy drama Salem as John Alden for three seasons before the show ended in 2017.
West starred in post-apocalyptic film, Here Alone which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically on March 30, 2017. The film received the Audience Award at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
In 2018, West was cast as Eduardo Dorrance in the fifth and final season of Gotham. In November 2018, it was revealed that West would portray the role of Billy Millikin in the then upcoming feature film Gossamer Folds. In November 2019, it was announced that West would star in the then upcoming sci-fi thriller No Running; the film was retitled Outsiders and released in 2022.
