Amy Rickman - Blood Brothers

Damon: Im here to eat cotton candy and to steal your girl. (1.22, Founders Day)

T he first thing everyone notices about Ian Somerhalder is his startling eyes: theyre deep blue and piercing, almost magnetic, and they immediately set him apart from the pack. He can look you in the eyes and make you do whatever he wants, says Julie Plec, one of the creators of The Vampire Diaries. Ian even has a nickname among his cast-mates that is especially appropriate: Smolderholder so its hardly a surprise that this gorgeous man from the Deep South of the USA has ended up playing the sexiest of all monsters, the undead seductor: a vampire.

It helped as well that he grew up in the homeland of vampire authoress extraordinaire Anne Rice (author of Interview With The Vampire and creator of one of the greatest vampire characters of all time, Lestat). Ians home lay just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans in Mandeville, Louisiana. Its a place known for its rich history, gothic atmosphere and mythical creations: I grew up on the lake in New Orleans, on the north shore, in a more rural area, and I could look across the lake and see New Orleans. I remember always thinking, Theres vampires over there. Not that Ian would ever admit to being scared, not even as a child. Sometimes wed go over there when I was a little kid, and it wasnt that it was scary, but it was enticing. It was the not-knowing . Now that Im on [The Vampire Diaries], its cool to go back there and see it. I thought, Wow, I used to look at that skyline from 26 miles away, across this huge lake, and think, Are the vampires going to get me, mom and dad?

Of course they would come to get him but not quite yet! There were still many years to go before Ian would cease to wonder about vampires and start becoming one.

Ian was born Ian Joseph Somerhalder on 8 December 1978 in Covington, Louisiana, and he is the middle sibling between his older brother, Robert (better known as Bob) and his younger sister, Robyn. Both of Ians siblings have gone on to have successful careers of their own Bob was a professional cyclist and Robyn worked in broadcast journalism. Ian didnt have the same kind of sibling rivalry with Bob that his character Damon has with Stefan, though: There wasnt much rivalry, he told Metro. My brother was seven years older so he just kicked my ass.

His dad, Robert Somerhalder senior, worked as an independent building contractor and his mother, Edna, was a massage therapist from Mississippi who grew up on a pig farm! Its obvious that Ians good looks come from the unique mixture of his background: his dad can claim English and French heritage, while his mother is Irish and part-Choctaw Native American.

The Somerhalders have a really interesting family mythology surrounding their last name. They can trace their history right back to their biological great-grandfather, who was a wealthy landowner in England with the surname Hull. He had an affair, and when the woman fell pregnant he didnt want to deal with the consequences. Instead he decided to pay off one of his immigrant workers to marry the mistress and take the baby far away. The workers last name was Somerhalder and the rest is history.

Ians parents divorced when he was fourteen and he lived with his mum. Edna was a very spiritual person, who sent her children to Catholic school and gave them herbal medicinal remedies when they got sick before giving them Western pharmaceuticals, part of the legacy of Ians Native-American grandmother. Edna is very health-conscious and taught her kids proper nutrition and how to eat healthily and organically; these were the values she instilled in her son from an early age and he has continued to follow them. According to him, his mother made my baby food and had me on blue-green algae probably since I was in third grade. I never had sugar, I never got to have white bread or any white-flour products. Indeed, his only indulgence was a slice of chocolate cake on his birthday. Even now he maintains healthy eating standards such as drinking between three and ten cups of green tea every day, his favourite being Jasmine Pearl tea.

Like any kid, Ian sometimes yearned for the treats that his classmates got to have. One day at elementary school, during lunch hour, he looked down at his ber-healthy sandwich (said to be grilled vegetables on marble rye bread), compared it to his friends lunch of peanut butter-and-jelly smeared between two layers of white bread, and felt a twinge of envy so he asked for a trade. He would never make that mistake again. The sugar-and-preservative laden lunch made him sick to his stomach. I cant eat fast food I havent eaten McDonalds in ten years. I eat fish every day, he explains.

Even more than eating healthily, Ians mum also taught her family to live healthily and encouraged Ian and his siblings to go out and enjoy the great outdoors. His favourite toy was a red BB gun (a kind of air gun) that he would take out among the marshes and fields around his house to play games. He mustve gotten up to lots of high jinks with that gun as he wouldnt give one to his own children: I grew up in the country and would I give a child (I mean a six-to nine-year-old ) a gun? Absolutely, without a doubt, hell no!

The rich cultural history surrounding New Orleans also enabled the energetic Ian to release some energy as he used to participate in reenactments of the American Civil War, where he would dress up in eighteenth-century costume and run around a fake battlefield. Little did he know this would be the perfect practice for a role to come!