15 Things You Didn't Know About 'This Is Us' Star Justin Hartley

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're watching and loving (and obsessing over) the new drama This Is Us. The sweet and sad show deals with one big family's coming-of-age story literally through the ages since so many different time periods are featured. The acting and writing are absolutely amazing on this show and they are what make it so great. Justin Hartley stars as Kevin, the sweet actor who is super close to his sister Kate, and who is having a bit of a crisis since he's not sure that his place in the industry as such a famous sitcom star is the right thing for him. Justin is really, really great on this show and he's fast becoming a fan favorite. So we were interested to find out as much as we can about him. After all, we safely say that after the success of this show so far, we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of him.

Here are 15 things you didn't know about Justin Hartley. Read on for some truly juicy details!

15 He Was On 'Revenge'

Do you recognize Justin? Because you totally should. This guy was also on Revenge. Remember that amazing drama starring Emily VanCamp as a girl living in the Hamptons, faking her identity and trying to get revenge on the wealthy family that contributed to her dad's death? Justin Hartley was on the show back in 2013 and 2014 and he starred as Patrick Osbourne. If you have no idea who that was because hey, that was a long time ago and you have watched a whole lot of good television since then, no worries. Here's a quick refresher: Patrick was Victoria Grayson's son. She gave birth to him back in her teenage years after a tragic incident. This character was super important since he proved that Victoria has some humanity within and that she might not be as evil as we originally thought. But the jury was still out on that one.

14 He Played Two Characters On 'Y&R'

Yup, Justin Hartley starred on 100 episodes of The Young and the Restless. He played two different characters: Adam Newman and Gabriel Bingham. The first character, Adam, has actually been played by three actors including Justin, along with a whole bunch of kids. Gotta love the soaps. He has been described as a super dark and even borderline evil type of character. Honestly, we never knew that Justin played someone like that. We're not surprised because we've seen his acting chops on This Is Us and of course we love him and think that he's amazing. But Kevin is such a sweet character it's hard to see him as someone who is the total opposite of that. But of course, that's crazy, since he's an actor after all. So by his job definition alone, he can play anything and anyone. The second character, Gabriel, runs his dad's company and seems like he's super popular with the ladies. Well, that we can definitely see…

13 He Loves Sports

Did you know that Justin Hartley is a big sports fan? Well, now you do. This isn't crazy surprising since he is so hot, let's be real here, and we tend to think that hot guys are usually into sports. Maybe that is a huge stereotype but hey, if the shoe (or sports watching) fits… Justin, at least according to some reports online, really loves both basketball and wrestling. He seems pretty buff so we get the feeling that he loves playing basketball or some other kind of sport as much as he probably enjoys curling up on the couch and enjoying the games. We find out on This Is Us that Kate is a huge sports fan since the whole family was pretty into football, but we don't really get a glimpse into how Kevin felt about it. But we know that Justin loves sports a ton so maybe that storyline is coming soon.

12 He Has A Surprising Hobby

Justin has said that he actually loves gardening and weeding so he would rather do that himself instead of hiring someone. Yeah, we definitely didn't see that one coming. We can safely say that we didn't expect him to love gardening. Seriously, how could we? Someone who looks like that loves to garden and pull out weeds? Okay, so this is a good lesson for us since now we know that you just can't ever judge a book by their cover. It's never going to work out too well and it's never going to be a good idea. Come to think of it, we could totally see Kevin on This Is Us weeding and gardening. It seems just sweet and innocent and charming enough for that character to really get into it. And it would give whatever episode that scene would be in some real comic relief. Okay, now we really need that to happen on the show.

11 He Was In 1,395 Episodes Of A Show

OMG. Yes. You really read that right. We couldn't believe it at first. Justin Hartley starred on a show called Passions from -- get this -- 1999 until 2008. That means that he was in 1,395 episodes. Phew. We're tired just thinking about that. Okay, okay, so this show was a soap opera. Now it makes a whole lot more sense, right? But it's still a really big and awesome accomplishment and something to be super proud of. It sounds pretty amazing, though: the show featured a lot of romantic storylines, as any soap show does, but it also had a touch of the supernatural. There was a character who was a witch and she had a doll that became real sometimes. Yes, that's a show that we want to watch, and now we're obsessed with thinking about how we can check it out. The soap ended in August of 2008. We wish we knew Justin in real life because we would ask him so many questions about acting on this show. So many questions.

10 He's A Dad

You probably didn't know that Justin Hartley is a dad, and it's mostly because he has suddenly become super famous thanks to his role as Kevin (aka one member of The Big Three) on This Is Us. And since he plays a brother and son on that show, it seems like that's just the role that he would have in real life. Funny how we find it so difficult to believe that actors could be different IRL from their roles. We need to work on that since it's not super fair. But yes, Justin is a dad and his daughter is named Isabella. She's 12 years old and she's really into dancing, so she will apparently dance and perform for him on a regular basis. Can we just say AWWWW? We would love to see that. Maybe she should make a guest appearance on the show. She would totally fit right in with Randall's adorable kids, that's for sure.

9 He's Almost 40

Did you think that Justin Hartley was almost 40? Probably not, right? When we found out that he was 39, we just couldn't believe it. He looks so young. So, so young. Okay, it's not that 40 is old because it's definitely not and age is really and truly just a number in this day and age. But for some reason, when actors approach their 40s, we tend to think it's kind of a big deal. Maybe it's how totally unfair Hollywood is about casting people when they get older. Maybe we're just kind of brainwashed about that whole thing. Well, his birthday is in January so he will turn 40 next year. But that's okay. Because he should feel super proud of himself and he should be impressed with where he is in his career now. He has done so well for himself and his latest role is just amazing. And just so it's not clear, Justin: you look really good.

8 He Loves 'Friends'

Yes, he loves Friends as much as we do. Which is pretty much the best news ever. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Justin said, "I love Friends. I've seen every one probably 37,000 times but I can watch Friends all night. You just forget how amazing it was! That's another example of casting. Those guys were just so good together. The tiny little nuances? Just a great ensemble." That's exactly how we feel about that show and we love that he totally agrees with us. We have to say that we hope he realizes that the cast of This Is Us is really just as amazing as that cast. Randall, Kevin, and Kate really feel like siblings and there's just a certain kind of magic when they are onscreen together, even though we only see that briefly since they tend to have separate storylines. But we're happy to know that he has as much love for this classic sitcom as we do.

7 He's Engaged To An Actress

Specifically, Justin is engaged to Chrishell Stause (such a beautiful first name). The two started dating back in 2014 and they definitely have one big thing in common: not only are they both actors, but they have both starred on soap operas. Chrishell has been on Days Of Our Lives and All My Children. The pair became engaged earlier this year. Here is another fun fact: Chrishell used to go out with Matthew Morrison, and more than that, they were even going to get married. But we are pretty sure that she is happy with Justin because how could you not be?! He just seems like he would be a really good boyfriend. Okay, so we really have nothing to base that fact on, but we are going to stick with it anyway. We just think that he seems like such a decent, good guy and would make anyone happy.

6 He Was A History Major

Back in college, Justin was both a history and a theatre major. He went to both the University of Chicago in Illinois and Southern Illinois University. We think it's really awsome that he studied something other than acting. Not that acting isn't a worthy thing to major in and really study, of course, because devoting yourself to your craft and learning as much as you can and getting as good as you can is always a good idea. But we think it's cool that he was also interested in something else… especially history, which is always known as a super academic subject. You really can't get with studying history if you're not willing to study and try your best to learn because it's not like you know all this stuff off the top of your head. History can get really detail-oriented and intricate and it involves a whole lot of reading and memorizing. Hey, sounds a lot like acting and reading scripts and memorizing them…

5 He's Super Relatable

In a recent interview with Glamour, Justin opened up about going through a tough period in his life back in his mid-30s when his marriage ended. The reporter wanted to talk about that since, of course, his character Kevin on This Is Us is 36 like the rest of The Big Three and is going through some major changes. He said in that interview, "Anytime you go through a divorce, you're completely lost, whether you want to admit it or not, or whether you know it or not, you're completely lost." So there you go. If you've ever felt totally lost in your life (and you probably have at some point or another because everyone has), then you know that it's totally normal. You can relate to Justin because while you might not have been divorced, you might have felt lost because of a break up because you graduated from college and had no idea what to do next because you got fired… The list of reasons is literally endless.

4 He Hates Planning

This past October, Justin appeared on Ellen's show and was, of course, absolutely adorable. He joked about how his wedding planning "is not going well" and he says that in terms of planning in general, he's not too great at that, too. This is so endearing and makes him even cuter and more charming than ever before. Which is crazy since you probably didn't think that he could get even cuter or charming. But now you know that he totally can. It's really great when an actor, public figure or celebrity of some kind will admit their flaws and quirks because it proves that they're not perfect… and that they don't care if you think they're not, either. They're not pretending to be someone that they're not and they want you to know that they're just as real and normal and human as you. So if you suck at planning or organizing anything in your life, hey, you can relate to Justin.

3 He Has Really Struggled

On Ellen's talk show, Justin said that he sometimes had phone conversations with his parents and would have to say that he was okay to keep trying to make it in Hollywood, even though things didn't always go super well for him. He told her that he has basically been waiting to have a really popular show for a really long time and pretty much his entire acting career. So this is yet another instance of not judging a book by its cover. You probably assumed looking at his pretty face that, yeah, he hasn't struggled too much in his life or in his career. He probably had a really easy life, right? Well, not so. He has honestly tried super hard to follow his acting dreams and to become a success. That's why his new show and newfound fame and success means so much to him. And that's why the show seems even better because we love that it has made him a true star.

2 He's Super Into Health

Yup, Justin is super into health and fitness, and he has been interviewed many times on this topic. He has said that he likes doing a number of different workouts, which makes a ton of sense since experts seem to believe that challenging different muscle groups and doing different things on a regular basis is the best thing that you can do. Apparently, he doesn't have any dairy products and he steers clear of sugar and refined carbs (aka anything like white bread). We can tell that this healthy diet is honestly and truly working for him since let's be honest, just look at him. Look at his face, his abs, his body. Yup, he looks pretty good. Now we kind of think that maybe we should give up dairy and sugar and white bread. Okay, we're not sure if we can go that far. But Justin, we love you and we totally want to be as healthy as you, so maybe we will give it a try.

1 He Loves 'This Is Us' As Much As You

It's pretty much a given that any actor is thrilled to be in a TV show or movie because, of course, they get to do what they love. But given from how often Justin Hartley has said in interviews that he absolutely loves being on This Is Us, it's super clear that he loves this show as much as you do. In fact, he might even love it more… and yeah, that's saying a lot. He has said in several interviews that the show is "special" and that this was obvious to him from the moment that he first laid eyes on the script. Mandy Moore has said a similar thing, and so has Milo Ventimiglia, and since we know that it's definitely a special and heartwarming show, we think they must be so happy to be acting on it. So you just know that the series will never have a single bad episode and that there will never be a dull moment because it honestly has Justin's seal of approval. Yet another reason to keep watching (as if we needed one) and yet another reason to root for Justin Hartley, which is definitely one to watch in Hollywood.