ARTICLES | GALLERY | CHARACTER
Name: Eric Salter Balfour
Character: Jesse McNally
Date of Birth: 24 April 1977
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, USA
Web Presence: Official Site – Born as Ghosts | Twitter | Instagram | IMDB | Wikipedia |
Appearances
Season One: Welcome to the Hellmouth | The Harvest
Bio
Eric was born California to David, a chiropractor and Sharon, a marriage and family counsellor and attended High School in Burbank. Before his sister, Tori, was born his family spent some time at a hippy commune at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. His family also used to hold Lakota Indian sweat lodges in their back yard.
Eric got his first job in television in 1991 on children’s TV show, Kids Incorporated and since this time he has rarely been off our screens. He scored guest starring roles in TV shows such as Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Boy Meets World before landing the role of Jesse in the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Since his appearance in those first two episodes he has continued to work, guesting on shows like as The West Wing (1999) and NYPD Blue (2001) before landing recurring roles on Six Feet Under (2001-2003), The O.C. (2004), Conviction (2006), which also starred J. August Richards and 24 (2001-2007) and a starring role in Haven (2010-2015).
Eric also directs and one movie in post-production, Walk to Vegas and is currently in pre-production on another, Bright in a Hollow Sky in which he will also play Monty.
If that wasn’t enough, Eric is also the lead singer in band, Born as Ghosts, formerly known as Fredalba.
Trivia
Eric appeared in the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (originally aired as a two hour premiere) and was the first of Buffy’s friends to be killed off. Joss Whedon originally wanted to include Eric in the opening credits of the first episode to make it more shocking and surprising when the character was killed off, however, he did not have the budget for it.
