Television audiences know him best from his years on Gilmore Girls and Supernatural, while horror film fans know him from a handful of early-aughts remakes of classic slashers, but Jared Padalecki isn't content to just let the past define him. 

So, although he has already been acting steadily since 1999 (that's more than 20 years) and recently came off a 15-season run on one show alone (the aforementioned Supernatural), he's continuing to challenge himself.

Padalecki now stars in and executive produces Walker, The CW's reimagining of Chuck Norris' broadcast crime drama from the 1990s, and that is a project that is expanding its universe through a prequel spin-off Padalecki also executive produces, titled Walker: Independence.

But before he was able to flex his industry muscles in such a big way, he was an actor for hire on everything from 1999's A Little Inside, which is is first credited film role, to the Disney Channel original A Ring of Endless Light in 2002, and New York Minute, opposite the Olsen twins, in 2004. His work in the genre world began in 2005 with Supernatural, as well as feature films House of Wax and Cry Wolf, and genre would prove to be very good to him through the years, not only making up several entries on his best list, but also providing legions of diehard fans who would follow him to everything else he would do, be it a holiday movie (2008's Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage), charity endeavors (#AlwaysKeepFighting), or his local Austin, Texas bar.

Discover the best of multi-hyphenate Padalecki' on-screen work so far with his highest-rated movies and television shows, ranked by Metascore.

ER

Metascore: 79
Best for: Fans of medical dramas with a healthy dose of relationship drama too
Where to watch:

, Google Play, , , iTunes,
Seasons: 15

Novelist Michael Crichton created this turn of the century medical drama that centers on those who are tasked with saving lives in the emergency room at Chicago's County General Hospital. Each episode deals with life and death scenarios for the various patients who come through their doors, sometimes due to such everyday occurrences as car accidents and sometimes having been involved in much larger traumas, including helicopter mishaps, but the show also focuses on how key staff members balance this high-stress job with their personal lives. Padalecki guest-stars in the seventh season episode titled "Piece of Mind" as Paul, a teenager who gets into a terrible car accident with his father.

"ER is energetic, combining hints of Rescue 911 with splashes of L.A. Law in an entertaining concoction." — Jonathan Storm, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Gilmore Girls

Metascore: 78
Best for: Fans of fast talkers, complicated love stories, and stories centered on mother-daughter dynamics
Where to watch: 

, Google Play, iTunes, Netflix,
Seasons: 7 plus a limited series revival

Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel star in this rapid-fire dialogue dramedy about a mother and daughter in the small, fictional town of Stars Hollow, Conn. Graham's Lorelai gave birth to Bledel's Rory when she was just a teenager and moved to the town to make it on her own, without help from her wealthy but conservative parents (played by Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann). When the show starts, Rory is now a teenager, and together they begin spending more time with the elder Gilmores in exchange for tuition help for a preparatory school. The show features a lot of colorful characters, including love interest for both women, and that's where Padalecki comes in: He recurs as one of Rory's boyfriends, Dean Forester, who later gets married but still can't quite stay away from the youngest Gilmore.

"The comedy is diverting enough, but the poignant drama makes Gilmore Girls special. This series may not fit conventional expectations for family drama, but the show succeeds on that turf anyway." — Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel

Phantom Boy

Metascore: 66
Best for: Fans of fantasy and animation
Where to watch: 

, Google Play, iTunes,
Runtime: 84 minutes

This French animated film follows a young boy named Leo (voiced by Gaspard Gagnol originally and Marcus D'Angelo in the English version and a detective named Alex (Édouard Baer in the original and Padalecki in the English-dubbed film) who team up in a supernatural way to stop a gangster. Leo is a cancer patient who has learned how to separate his spirit from his body so he can leave his hospital bed, and this ghost-like ability lets him fly, pass through walls, and go unseen in order to take down the gangster's plan to destroy the city.

"The filmmakers are thankfully willing to render, with unremitting vigor, how grief can batter the human heart." — Wes Greene, Slant

Supernatural

Metascore: 60
Best for: Fans of scary stories, riffs on religion, and emotional sibling dynamics
Where to watch:

, Google Play, iTunes, Netflix,
Seasons: 15

Padalecki stars alongside Jensen Ackles in this demon-hunting drama that focuses on the Winchester brothers and their quest (initially) to find their father while saving people and hunting things and (then later) to stop the apocalypse and even God himself (Rob Benedict). Padalecki plays Sam Winchester, the younger of the two, who starts the series out of the hunting life but pulled back in by his big brother Dean (Ackles). As the seasons go on, it is revealed that Sam has some very important connection to the demonic world, including being the chosen vessel for Lucifer. The show features all kinds of monsters and creatures for the boys to fight, from vampires and ghosts, to angels and, as aforementioned God and Lucifer, but what matters the most is how the brothers fight for each other, including cutting deals to save the other from death.

"It is a well-made little show of horrors that's likely to scare and thrill its target audience." — Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Walker

Metascore: 51
Best for: Fans of crime and family dramas with a Western twist
Where to watch: 

, fuboTV, Google Play, , iTunes,
Seasons: 2 (so far)

Padalecki stars in and executive produces this reimagining of Walker, Texas Ranger, wherein he plays the titular character, Walker Cordell, who (you guessed it) is a Texas Ranger. But he's also a family man who lives on a generational ranch with his parents, brother, and teenage children, and he has to juggle complications within those dynamics with carrying out the law and his own search for what really happened the night his wife (played by his real-life wife Genevieve Padalecki) died. 

"Walker is established as something quite unusual: a law-and-order hero with no sense of authority. ... Depending on your outlook, "Walker" is either progressive or feel-good." — John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal

Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

Metascore: 47
Best for: Fans of
Where to watch: 

, Google Play, iTunes,
Runtime: 112 minutes

Based on the 1964 novel, this remake of the 1965 film of the same title follows Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid), his co-pilot (played by Tyrese Gibson), and their crew after they crash-land in the desert and have to rebuild their plane in order to stand a chance at survival (by flying themselves out of there). Of course tensions are high due to dwindling supplies and big personalities, but the arrival of another group creates additional danger. Padalecki plays a nervous member of the crew named John Davis (which is apt because the film is also produced by a man of that same name).

"This new low-octane version is hardly going to make anyone forget Robert Aldrich's semi-classic, testosterone-laden original starring Jimmy Stewart." — Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)

Metascore: 46
Best for: Fans of family comedies
Where to watch: 

, , Google Play, iTunes,
Runtime: 98 minutes

Based on Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr.'s semi-autobiographical novel, this version of Cheaper by the Dozen came out in the early aughts and is technically a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. This time, Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt star as the parents who have 12 children. But just when they maybe were in a good groove with juggling all of those kids, their professional lives get upended, which throws their family into a tailspin too. He gets offered a job in a new city while she sells a book and has to leave for a book tour. As if single-dad-ing it for awhile isn't hard enough, the kids are not happy about moving. Padalecki appears as a mean teen in the new town who makes fun of Tom Welling's character.

"Much of the film feels like watching Home Alone and Mr. Mom on 12 different TVs at once." — Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club

House of Wax (2005)

Metascore: 41
Best for: Fans of slasher horror
Where to watch: 

, Google Play, iTunes,
Runtime: 113 minutes

The latest in the film adaptations of Charles S. Belden's The Wax Works stars Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray as siblings who are heading out of town with some friends (including Padalecki's Wade). After they decide to pull over and camp overnight, everything that can go wrong starts to, including being spied on, mysteriously filmed, finding roadkill, and waking up to a broken vehicle. The group becomes a target for those who are trying to finish the town's wax museum, murdering outsiders to use as "realistic figures" in various tableaux. 

"The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don't die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula." — Dana Stevens, The New York Times

Cry Wolf (2005)

Metascore: 39
Best for: Fans of horror thrillers
Where to watch:

, Google Play, iTunes,
Runtime: 90 minutes

This horror movie is set at a boarding school, among a group of students who tell tales about a serial killer. They've created a game out of it, marking one of them as a killer known as "The Wolf," with the rest in the group trying to figure out who the killer is this time. Only, a woman is found dead on their campus, seemingly killed by an actual wolf, which makes the kids want to up the drama on their game, including sending an e-mail around to the rest of the student body detailing a serial killer who preys on students. New attacks follow, but the web these kids spun makes getting to the bottom of who the killer is more complicated than in most slasher films. Padalecki plays one of the students in the group, named Tom. 

"A second-rate slasher, but it shows the odd bit of directorial promise and a great deal of ambition." — Adam Smith, Empire

Friday the 13th (2009)

Metascore: 34
Best for: Fans of new versions of classic horror films 
Where to watch: 

, Google Play, , iTunes, Netflix,
Runtime: 97 minutes

This reboot of the 1980s horror franchise of the same title follows the typical slasher format in that a group of friends visit Crystal Lake, only to be picked off one by one by Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears). Travis Van Winkle plays Trent, who has a summer cabin on that infamous lake, while Padalecki plays Clay Miller, the brother of a young woman (Whitney, played by Amanda Righetti) who went missing during her own trip out there. Trent and his friends are there to have fun, but when Clay visits them, some of them agree to help look for his sister. Naturally, they encounter Jason, who has been holding Whitney captive because she reminds him of his deceased mother.

"This new Friday the 13th, unquestionably savvier and snappier than the original,...is a needed return to simplicity." — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune