Overview
Skeet Ulrich (; born Bryan Ray Trout on January 20, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in popular 1990s films, including Billy Loomis in Scream (1996), Chris Hooker in The Craft (1996) and Vincent Lopiano in As Good as It Gets (1997). From 2017-2021, he starred as Forsythe Pendleton "F.P." Jones II on The CW's Riverdale. He reprised his Scream role in the sequels Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023). His other television roles include Johnston Jacob "Jake" Green Jr. in the television series Jericho, and LAPD Detective Rex Winters, a Marine veteran from the Law & Order franchise.
Early life
Bryan Ray Trout was born on January 20, 1970, in Lynchburg, Virginia. His mother, Carolyn Elaine Wax (née Rudd), owns the special events marketing agency Sports Management Group, and his father is a restaurateur. He has an elder brother, Geoff. His first stepfather was D. K. Ulrich, a NASCAR driver and team owner, whom he considers his father. In 1990, his mother remarried, to Edward Lewis Wax. Ulrich's maternal uncle is retired NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd, and his maternal grandfather was Alvin Ray Rudd Sr., the president of Al Rudd Auto Parts.
Ulrich's father kidnapped him and his brother when he was six years old, and they spent the next three years moving from Florida to New York and then to Pennsylvania. They were reunited with their mother in North Carolina, where his father disappeared from his life.
The nickname "Skeet" originated from "Skeeter", a nickname he was given by his Little League coach because of his small stature and because he was fast as a mosquito. Along with his slight frame, he had poor health as a child, including numerous bouts with pneumonia; he underwent open-heart surgery to repair a defective ventricle. Ulrich graduated from Northwest Cabarrus High School in North Carolina. After enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to study marine biology, he switched to New York University, where he was noticed by playwright David Mamet.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).