Why Jack From This Is Us Looks So Familiar

One of the most frustrating parts of watching TV is seeing an actor or actress and wondering what TV series or movies they were previously in. With his genuine good looks and likable nature, This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia definitely falls into "that guy" territory. Where exactly have you seen that crooked smile before? We're here to tell you just exactly why Jack Pearson looks so darn familiar.

Diehard fans of Gilmore Girls will best remember Ventimiglia for his role as Jess Mariano, the once-love interest of Rory Gilmore. Despite some questionable character moves, Jess was well-liked enough at one point to be considered for his own spin-off series.

The spin-off, of course, never happened; however, Ventimiglia still found time to appear in Netflix's Gilmore Girls revival in 2016. Now, with rumors that a second revival may be in the works at Netflix, could we see Ventimiglia step into the role one more time? Probably not, according to USA Today.

"There are more stories to tell with a lot of these characters, but at the same time some of these characters for some of us actors are more than a decade in the past. It was exciting going back to Gilmore Girls for the four Netflix movies, but I'm satisfied with it," he said. "I think the stories were told. I think it was great for the audience and fans to get just one small taste of that world again. But, at the same time, I think people should not get so greedy."

Ventimiglia had a Gilmore Girls-esque part on NBC's 1960s drama American Dreams, on which he played Chris Pierce, a high school student who dated lead actress Brittany Snow's character, Meg Pryor. Chris was the resident bad boy on the show; at one point, he convinced Meg to take part in a breaking and entering scheme. His mom was also a Playboy Bunny, which, scandal!

In 2013, the show held a reunion of sorts at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, The Huffington Post reported. It was during that reunion fans were able to see an unaired epilogue to the series finale. The original third and final season finale had Meg and Ventimiglia's character run away with each other, a move both her parents didn't like. Oh, Milo. Breaking hearts yet again!

Following American Dreams, Ventimiglia's next big role was Richard Thorne III on the WB's The Bedford Diaries. Canceled after just eight episodes, the show chronicled the lives of six New York City college students, one of whom just so happened to be played by future Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley.

Ventimiglia's role received a mixed response: the New York Times called Ventimiglia's role "the most compelling character, a cynical rich kid and reformed alcoholic who becomes editor of the college newspaper and has most of the best lines"; the Washington Post, meanwhile, called his character "smug," adding that the show's characters seemed "weak and inauthentic."

Hmmm. No wonder it got canceled.

After the short-lived Bedford Diaries, Ventimiglia went on to star in NBC's much-hyped sci-fi thriller Heroes, about a group of ordinary people with extraordinary powers. (Ventimiglia's character, Peter Petrelli, could take and mimic other people's powers.)

"Heroes was such a lightning bolt hitting television and really did make an impact around the world. It was good storytelling and it was a great concept," Ventimiglia later recalled to IGN.

Although the show premiered to insanely high ratings in 2006, Heroes eventually fizzled out; NBC unceremoniously canceled the show in 2010. NBC tried to reboot the series a few years later, which, duh, didn't work out.

In 2007, Ventimiglia appeared in a commercial for Apple, during which he, gasp, requested a middle seat on a plane, then spent the rest of the flight showing off his fancy new iBook to his seatmates. It was likely hugely popular among nostalgic fans of Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out."

Ten years later, a fan on Twitter randomly asked Ventimiglia when he would get his own Apple commercial. Ventimiglia's response: wait... I did one of those?

"They doing those?" He wrote. "Love to. I'm @Apple through and through. What do you think @Apple?"

Tongue in cheek, perhaps? If not, we can't blame him for having a slip of memory. After all, "Who Let the Dogs Out" was a really, really annoying song.

On Frank Darabont's Chicago-set Mob City, Ventimiglia played mob fixer Ned Stax, a role that often came with complicated dialogue.

"It was tough. The first really long scene that I had, it took a minute to get the cadence of that, as Frank wrote it. So, it took me a minute, but then, right when that switch happened, and I was sitting there in the clothes and in the moment with a cigarette in my hand, talking about things of the era, it just all made sense and it became so easy," he told Collider. "More than 50 percent of the actor's work are the words. If the words are there, then it makes our job so much easier. So, it took a minute, but when it settled in, it was very easy."

Ventimiglia helped shape his character through stories from his dad, who grew up in Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, Ventimiglia grew up listening to his father's stories from Chicago's extensive mob history, which he then used to help shape his character.

During the same year as Mob City, Ventimiglia landed the lead role of Ian Mitchell on the Crackle series Chosen. The character was a husband, father and lawyer who wakes up one day and finds a box at his door with a gun and a photo of a stranger. The box explains he has to kill the stranger in three days and if he doesn't, he risks the life of his daughter and himself.

Chosen was a very physical, violent show and Ventimiglia spent time perfecting the reactions of his character.

"I almost had to un-learn my natural response, which was a challenge, and a good challenge," Ventimiglia, who also served as a producer on the show, told Collider. "I didn't want Ian Mitchell to look like a guy who was reactionary and knew what to do in a situation. His body didn't instinctually kick in. He had to struggle through it, at first. There are things that, as an actor, I'm exposed to that a lot of people aren't exposed to because I've played a lot of different characters and had the good fortunate to see a lot of different sides of life."

He continued, "But, Ian Mitchell is holding a fountain pen and talking to a judge. I had to turn off Milo for a minute and understand what Ian was doing, in his daily life, and how he would react to everything."

After Mob City and Chosen, Ventimiglia went on to play Sean Bennigan in the ABC sci-fi show The Whispers, about a group of children in Washington, D.C. who start chatting with an imaginary friend who gets them to do dangerous things.

Despite having Steven Spielberg as an executive producer and one of the strongest summer premieres for adults ages 18-49, The Whispers only lasted 13 episodes.