Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American actor and director, known for his role as Julian Baker in The CW drama series One Tree Hill. He is also known for his roles in the films The Day After Tomorrow and Wimbledon. He starred as John Monad in the HBO drama series John from Cincinnati, and portrayed Spencer Monroe in the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead. Early life Nichols was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and moved to Austin, Texas before his first birthday. He was named after the Austin Nichols distilling company, producers of Wild Turkey bourbon. His father, David Nichols, is a radiologist, and his mother, Kay (née Vermeulen), was a professional trick water skier. Kay was a national champion ten times and an international champion once. He has one older sister, Ashley. Nichols was raised near Lake Austin and attended Casis Elementary School. Nichols began competitive water skiing from the age of two. He represented the United States junior water ski team in the Pan-American Championships in 1997, and was also on the United States junior Olympic water skiing team. At age thirteen, he was ranked third in the world. Nichols had intended to become a professional water skier until he injured his shoulder in Florida, and was forced to give up the sport. While at McCallum High School in Austin, he played basketball but was "absolutely awful". Nichols' interest in acting was sparked when he was fifteen and began to take acting lessons. He moved to Los Angeles after high school. Acting career Beginnings His acting career began when he gate-crashed a party at the Sundance Film Festival and was signed by a manager. Nichols initially wished to attend the University of Texas, but moved to Los Angeles after his signing and enrolled at the University of Southern California, graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Although Nichols had guest appearances in Sliders, Odd Man Out, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Family Law, Watching Ellie, and Wolf Lake before his graduation, his big break came in 2002 when he appeared as Brenda Chenowith's lover in two episodes of Six Feet Under. He had previously appeared in two films, Durango Kids in 1999 and Holiday in the Sun in 2001. In his first critically successful film role, Nichols starred as a stereotypical "frat boy" in The Utopian Society, a 2003 independent