Jalen Thomas Brooks

Jalen Thomas Brooks (born October 11, 2001) is an American actor. He is known for his recurring roles in the short lived ABC legal drama, Rebel and The CW's Walker, a reboot of the iconic 1990s action series, Walker, Texas Ranger. He also had a brief recurring role in the TNT drama, Animal Kingdom. Brooks made his feature film debut in the 2023 horror film, Thanksgiving.

Early life and education
Jalen Thomas Brooks was born on October 11, 2001. in Los Angeles, California. He has one brother. Brooks was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he attended Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada, and played basketball growing up. Brooks even had letters from college scouts as early as his freshman year in high school. He ultimately gave up basketball due to boredom and physical exhaustion. He credited The Hunger Games (2012) with piquing his interest in acting as he saw kids his age. Brooks began training in theater courses which he admits were intimidating. Instead, he later enrolled in a film acting course. He likened film acting to a team sport like basketball. Brooks studied at DreamTraxx Acting Academy in Vegas. There he found an agent and began taking auditions.

Career
Brooks credited his mother for his career as his family resided in Las Vegas, Brooks and his mother would often commute for his auditions in Burbank. In 2019, Brooks made his television debut in an episode of The CW's Supergirl. Fresh off a recurring role as Blaise on TNT's Animal Kingdom, Brooks was cast in the recurring role of Sean in ABC's Rebel on February 9, 2021. While the series was short lived, Brooks appeared in 8 out of the 10 episodes. On October 22, 2021, it was announced that Brooks had been cast as Colton Davidson on The CW's Walker. At the time, Brooks had just wrapped Rebel and he was looking to take a break when his manager urged him to audition for Walker instead. He was shocked when he booked the gig and said "It was honestly the best decision in my life, just to do it." Having grown up on Supernatural, the actor was excited to work opposite Jared Padalecki and fellow Supernatural alumni, Mitch Pileggi. Brooks had briefly met his Walker co-star Odette Annable when they both worked on Supergirl. Brooks would appear in 20 episodes of the series. In February 2023, Brooks booked a starring role Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. The film was released on November 17.