Jesse Williams Brooklyn's New Star

In 2000, Temple University sophomore Jesse Williams visited a receptionist friend at a Manhattan modeling agency. The next thing he knew, he was posing in a Kenneth Cole ad campaign. “I loved New York as soon as I met it,” says Jesse, 27. After graduating from college he taught writing in Philly schools, before moving to the Big Apple in ’03 to pursue modeling—which led to acting—full-time.

“I liked teaching but I didn’t want to wake up 40 years later wondering, ‘What if?’” He got a role on Law & Order, came this close to playing Meadow’s boyfriend on The Sopranos and made ends meet tending bar at the Soho Grand. His big break was getting cast in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, out this Wednesday. In one scene, he plays a nude model in Alexis Bledel’s art class—and drops his own traveling pants. But you’ll see no cheek in the PG-13 flick: “My ass didn’t do well with test audiences,” Jesse jokes.

Next up is the hotly anticipated Brooklyn’s Finest, in which he plays a rookie cop under veteran Richard Gere. “I was so excited to land this role,” says Jesse, who now lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with his real-estate broker fiancée, Arin. “Auditioning is like going on five blind dates a week and getting dumped every time. It’s nice to be told yes.”