Biography
Date of Birth
12 December 1979, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Birth Name
Jesse Gordon Spencer
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
Jesse Gordon Spencer is an Australian actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Billy Kennedy on the Australian soap opera Neighbours (1994-2000, 2005, 2022), Dr. Robert Chase on the American medical drama House (2004-2012) and Captain Matthew Casey on the American drama Chicago Fire (2012-2021).
Trivia
Has two older brothers and a younger sister.
He was in the Australian Boys Choir.
Has played the violin since the age of 10.
Plays the guitar, the bass, and the piano.
Unveiled an Uptown Girls (2003) window display in New York with co-stars Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning.
Just like his characters Billy Kennedy (Neighbours (1985)) and Robert Chase (House M.D. (2004)), his real-life father and brothers are all doctors.
Sang the song "Molly Smiles" on the Uptown Girls (2003) soundtrack.
Was engaged to House M.D. (2004) co-star Jennifer Morrison. The engagement ended August 15, 2007.
Is fluent in French.
Former roommate of James McAvoy when he lived in London. The latter invited him to the Los Angeles premiere of The Last King of Scotland (2006).
2007: In People's 100 Most Beautiful People issue.
Now resides in Los Angeles. He used to live in Chicago when he filmed Chicago Fire.
Quotes
I'm glad I'm back to being a nobody.
[noting that all his siblings are doctors] I'm the black sheep of the family.
Like Billy [his character in Neighbours (1985)], my dad is a GP and my two eldest brothers are, too. If I wasn't acting, I would have definitely gone into medicine, too. It's totally fascinating.
Mum decided that I could sing a bit, so she put me in a choir, which I hated and it was just a nightmare. I was a rebellious sort of choirboy.
I started off with violin, then I started learning guitar, then I went to piano. But I self-taught piano just because I enjoyed it. I've always really enjoyed music. I haven't played much the last four years because I've been traveling around, so when I got his role [Neal in Uptown Girls (2003)], I had to start playing the guitar again.
I always find music guys writing about love. Think of something else for a change. I'm sorry, but it's been done, and it does work and it's good and all that, but I think something else would be nice. I tend not to write lyrics, cause I'm a bad lyricist. I sort of write the music, and I can orchestrate the whole thing, but the words, [singing] "I woke up this morning . . . " Awful stuff.
I'm from Melbourne - it's a city of about 3 million - but when you're growing up in a place like that and you think it's quite a big city, and then you travel around and you go, "Actually . . . no." So when I go back now, Melbourne feels like a country town. My mum will be in like 15 cars of traffic and she'll be complaining. And I'm like, "That's not traffic, I'm sorry!"
[asked about Halloween in Australia] When I was a kid there was a little, you know, they celebrated it, not in the way they do in the states. It's not nearly as extravagant, if you do go trick-or-treating as a kid, I mean if you have a sheet with holes for the eyes, you're doing really really well. You'll have the best costume on the block, but maybe it's improved since I was a kid.
