This handsome leading male player of American TV possesses looks that betray his roots as a model, but in whose accent one can barely detect his Australian birth. Julian McMahon first made a name for himself playing Ian Rain on NBC's daytime soap "Another World" from 1992-1994, and later garnered attention as the intense loner and task-force detective John Grant on the primetime series "Profiler" (NBC, 1996-2000), but he truly rocketed to stardom as the greed-driven, sex-addicted, morally challenged plastic surgeon Christian Troy on the adult, edgy cable hit "Nip Tuck" (f/x. 2003 - ).

The son of a knighted former Prime Minister of Australia, McMahon entered college as a law student, but dropped out to pursue acting. He was called to L.A. as a model in 1987 and continued that career throughout Europe, earning the title as Givenchy Man of the Year in 1990. He returned to Australia already a known commodity thanks to a Levi Strauss commercial that had won awards worldwide, and appeared in "The Power, the Passion", the country's first daytime soap opera, and "Home and Away", a long-running primetime serial. McMahon even performed in a stage musical based on the latter. His feature film debut was in the Aussie-made "Exchange Lifeguards/Wet and Wild Summer!" (1992), starring Christopher Atkins and Elliot Gould. By the time the film was released, McMahon was in New York on "Another World". After returning to L.A. in 1994, he found work on stage and in a few low-budget feature films (e.g., "Magenta" 1996) before landing his role on "Profiler"--he also gained noteriety in the United Kingdom for his two-year marriage to Danni Minogue, sister of pop singer Kylie (he was later also briefly married to "Baywatch" blonde Brooke Burns.

After "Profiler"concluded, McMahon was immediately snapped up by super-producer Aaron Spelling, who installed him on his hit witchcraft dramedy "Charmed" in 2000, playing the half-demon Cole Turner. Growing bored with the role, McMahon was anxious to find a new challenge when he discovered the pilot script for the plastic surgery drama "Nip/Tuck." The show's casting agents were particularly interested in having McMahon audition, but he agressively persued the role and won the producers over with a videotaped reading he shot himself. The show was an instant hit, bolstered by McMahon's vanity-less performance as the ethically and morally challenged Troy, constantly nuanced with equal doses of charm, sex appeal, pathos and empathy. Off the success of the series, McMahon's profile was raised significantly when he was cast as the comic book supervillain Dr. Doom, the arch enemy of the "Fantastic Four" (2005), and while he effectively dispensed his trademark smarmy charm, the direction of the character was generally ill-conceived from the get-go, leaving McMahon with a thankless role. McMahon next costarred opposite Sandra Bullockin the thriller "Premonition" (lensed 2006), as a husband dies in a car crash only to reappear alive before his wife the next day.