Killers on the loose, grieving fathers, and blood-thirsty vampires. Since playing middle child Simon Camden on "7th Heaven," David Gallagher has shifted from family drama to darker, edgier roles. But that's not all he's been up to.
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00:00Killers on the loose, grieving fathers, and bloodthirsty vampires. Since playing middle
00:05child Simon Camden on Seventh Heaven, David Gallagher has shifted from family drama to
00:10darker, edgier roles. But that's not all he's been up to.
00:15Family fare may have made him famous, but Gallagher seems to prefer crime dramas. He's
00:19guest-starred on numerous popular series, including having a recurring role on Numbers.
00:24Gallagher joined the show during its third season, playing Buck Winters, a teenager who
00:28loves an older woman and becomes her accomplice in several crimes. His last appearance was
00:32in Season 5, in which his character escapes from prison, thus ending his storyline.
00:37During his hiatus from Numbers, Gallagher kept up appearances on TV. He appeared as
00:41Rick Bates, a waiter who murders his parole officer, in a Season 6 episode of CSI Miami.
00:47I'm on probation. I can't own a gun.
00:51He then joined Bones as Ryan Stevenson, the son of two televangelists, in a Season 4 episode.
00:57This was followed by his role as Jeff Ellis, a suspect in a nurse's disappearance, in a
01:01Season 7 episode of Without a Trace.
01:032012 was a banner year for Gallagher in terms of crime drama appearances. He was spotted
01:08on CSI New York before jumping into another role on CSI Crime Scene Investigation. He
01:13also made guest spots on Vegas and Criminal Minds.
01:16In 2009, Gallagher appeared in a Season 9 episode of Smallville. He played Xan, who,
01:21along with his twin sister, Jaina, are DC Comics Wonder Twins. It's a moniker that the
01:25two truly live up to on Smallville, as they begin the episode with Jaina shape-shifting
01:29into a mountain lion while Xan turns into ice.
01:33TV viewers are not the only people enjoying David Gallagher's acting talents. In 2002,
01:38he joined the voice cast for the English version of the video game Kingdom Hearts, playing
01:42Riku.
01:43Gallagher has continued to play the role during each new installment, from Kingdom Hearts
01:472 to 2020's Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory. But these aren't the only Kingdom Hearts projects
01:52that Gallagher's been a part of. In 2003, he played Riku in the pilot for a Kingdom
01:57Hearts series that never fully came to fruition. Director and writer Seth Kearsley shared the
02:02details in an interview with Inverse, explaining that he spent months rewriting the pilot after
02:06realizing that he wasn't happy with his original product. He has since shared the 11-minute
02:11pilot on YouTube.
02:13While 7th Heaven began as a show that mainly chronicles the challenges of growing up, it
02:17later focused on the challenges of adulthood, as its characters left the nest and started
02:22their own families. That includes Simon, who fans would watch go to college before almost
02:26tying the knot with Rose.
02:28Like his on-screen counterpart, Gallagher also went to college attending the University
02:32of Southern California. He told the Los Angeles Times that going to college helped to change
02:36his perspective on projects, showing him how to step out of the actor's viewpoint. He also
02:40continued acting while working on his studies. He said,
02:44"...I always tried to keep acting in college. I had to sort of take a break because my day
02:48job, which was 7th Heaven, couldn't accommodate a full college schedule. So I had to walk
02:52from that, get into college, and then I dedicated some spare time back to them."
02:56"...I tried to stay as busy as I could, but college was first priority."
03:01Show business is a family business for Gallagher. His siblings, Kyle, Michelle, and Kelly, have
03:05all worked in the entertainment industry, with jobs ranging from acting to camera operation.
03:10Gallagher has even spent time on-screen with some of his siblings. Michelle appeared as
03:14a young confidante to Gladys Bink in two episodes of 7th Heaven. Then, in 2003, Michelle
03:19and Kyle joined their brother in the comedy 10 Bucks, which Gallagher directed, produced,
03:23and co-wrote. 10 Bucks is currently Michelle's last acting credit. Kyle has gone on to produce
03:28several projects, while Kelly's last acting credit was in the 90s.
03:32In addition to acting, Gallagher has also done plenty of work behind the scenes. In
03:372007, he produced an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which he also portrayed
03:42the title character. The film is based on the book of the same name written by Oscar
03:46Wilde and tells the story of a beautiful man who dreads growing old. Gallagher told the
03:50Los Angeles Times that this was just one of the films he worked on while in college, describing
03:55it as a dark indie project that didn't receive much traction.
03:59While Gallagher has spent plenty of time beefing up his small-screen credits, he has still
04:03collected a number of movie credits, including the 2011 dramatic comedy Trophy Kids. The
04:08film tells the story of Max Wolfowitz, a 20-something who hopes that making a film will give him
04:13the fame he desires. In order to do this, Max enlists Reed Davis, played by Gallagher,
04:18to write the screenplay. In an interview with Hollywire, Gallagher and the film's director-slash-co-writer
04:22Josh Sugarman explained that the movie is really about Generation Y's overall mindset.
04:27Sugarman told the outlet,
04:29"...it's about a generation of kids who had grown up their entire lives being told by
04:32their parents and by their teachers and by the media how special they were and that moment
04:37when they get out in the world and realize that perhaps they're not as special as they
04:40thought they were."
04:41As Max works to live up to his potential, Reed struggles with writing Max's film. Gallagher
04:46told Hollywire that it's a process that challenges how Reed truly sees himself. He said,
04:51"...I really related to his sense of self-doubt with his art and wanting to be really great
04:55and wanting to live up to as special as he was told he was and struggling with that."
05:00The film won two Best of the Fest awards at the Breckenridge Festival of Film in 2011,
05:05scoring awards in the categories of Ensemble Cast and Best Visual Effects.
05:09In 2011, Gallagher stepped into the science fiction genre as camera store operator Donnie
05:14in J.J. Abrams' Super 8. Donnie helps two kid filmmakers after their camera breaks following
05:19an unexplainable train crash in 1979.
05:22Do you think it's fixable?
05:23I think it's cheaper to buy a new one.
05:26Gallagher told Entertainment Weekly that he was given a dummy script when first auditioning
05:30for the film. He received the part after sending in a photo of himself fishing, and he had
05:34a clear vision for his character. He told the outlet,
05:37"...my goal became, how do I portray this 70s stoner, the comic relief, and not be goofy
05:42or the stupid stoner? I wanted Donnie to be a real guy who just really wanted to get stoned,
05:47but instead had all of this stuff happen around him."
05:49While the film boasts plenty of names that have spent a considerable amount of time in
05:53the entertainment industry, the story is carried by a young ensemble cast. Gallagher told the
05:58Los Angeles Times that watching these kids reminded him of his childhood. He said,
06:02"...every now and then they sort of tripped me out and sent me down a memory lane where
06:06I would just look at them on set and be like, oh my God, I remember, you know, being your
06:10age and being on a set and running around or having fun."
06:13"...and the kids just brought me back to that."
06:16Gallagher returned to The CW in 2011, appearing in two episodes of The Vampire Diaries as
06:21Ray Sutton, who was turned into a vampire werewolf before being killed. But there was
06:25almost a Vampire Diaries that saw Gallagher in a more prominent role. He told Entertainment
06:29Weekly that he read for the pilot with the possibility of playing either Stefan or Damon
06:34Salvatore. Gallagher said to the outlet,
06:36"...I think ultimately it was sort of difficult to place me because lately in my career I've
06:40been leaning towards things with a little bit darker sensibility and that clashed with
06:44the work that people knew me for at the time."
06:46Executive producer Julie Plek told the publication that Gallagher's role in Super 8 impressed
06:51her, even though she had no clue that he was playing Donnie until a friend pointed it out.
06:55The part of Ray followed soon after. Plek told Entertainment Weekly,
06:59"...he's a really smart, committed actor, and he grew up on a TV show that defined him
07:02in a certain way. That's why it's exciting to give him an opportunity to really show
07:06off his dark and edgy chops."
07:09Dramatic roles with a dark side continue to be a focus for Gallagher. Given his recent
07:14list of credits, in the 2017 TV movie Born and Missing, he plays Brian, a husband and
07:19father who is searching for his missing child after his wife is killed in a car accident.
07:23He then joined the CBS crime-fighting series SWAT in 2020, playing a criminal named Sawyer
07:28who comes face-to-face with Sgt. Hondo and Sgt. Deacon.
07:33It's been more than 15 years since Gallagher made his final appearance on 7th Heaven, but
07:37he's continued to stay in touch with other members of the Camden family. In 2017, Beverly
07:42Mitchell, who played his sister Lucy, posted a photo to her Instagram of herself along
07:47with Barry Watson, Gallagher, and Camden matriarch Katherine Hicks. A year later, Mitchell took
07:52to Instagram once again to wish Gallagher a happy birthday and posted a photo of the
07:56two as kids. Mitchell told Today in 2018,
07:58"...I am the glue of 7th Heaven. If you want to talk to anybody, you gotta come through
08:02me, cuz I will find them and I will tell you where they are and I will give you their contact
08:07info."