DJ Qualls

Donald Joseph Qualls (born July 12, 1978) is an American actor, better known as D.J. Qualls. Qualls was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and was raised in Manchester, Tennessee, as one of five children. He grew up in a small town in the Deep South in the middle of Tennessee, about thirty miles from the Alabama border.

He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer at age 14. He was sick and he had major surgery and treatment for two years. He had his spleen removed, though, so he'd be prone to certain kinds of infections today because the spleen is a major organ in cleaning and filtering the blood. D.J. survived after multiple surgeries, as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Once D.J. had survived he believed there was something bigger and better out there for him. When he was little D.J. went to Camp Hope, put on by the American Cancer Society for children with cancer. As an adult and a cancer research and awareness advocate D.J. volunteers there as a counselor. Where he grew up the two main industries were casket making and pajama making. He worked in a factory for a summer.

After graduating from Coffee County Central High School in 1995 D.J. was desperate to get out of Tennessee, so he took off for a foriegn country where he didn't have to learn a new language. He ended up at The University of London at King's College studying English language and literature. He eventually returned to Tennessee, after about three years. At first he worked as a paralegal in 1997 and began studying at Belmont University in Nashville.

He was an extra in the HBO movie Against the Wall in 1994. He got the small role of Jason in the television miniseries Mama Flora's Family (1998) while participating for free in Community Theater. After auditioning for a one liner in Road Trip (2000) destiny took over and he was asked to come from the Atlanta office to meet producer Ivan Reitman in Beverly Hills. He is probably most famous for portraying a college nerd who performs a wild dance at a black fraternity in Road Trip. He made his debut in that movie as a lead character, the shy virgin Kyle Edwards. While filming Road Trip D.J. found an abandoned little dog that is his now. After the movie was released D.J. was afraid people would think he was a dork, because he played a dork in the movie.

After that he started doing a lot of work. He modeled for Prada for a while. Photographers David LaChapelle and Steve Klein liked his look and meeting them soon had him doing print modeling work. He was in some of the top fashion and lifestyle magazines, which got him exposure and money to help with student loans. Cherry Falls (2000) came next, where he played another virgin named Wally. In 2001 he played Neil Lawrence in Chasing Holden.

In 2002 he appeared as Archie in Comic Book Villains, as Josh in the episode My Student of Scrubs, he was Andrew in the movie Big Trouble, Junior in the Lone Star State of Mind movie, and he also starred as Dizzy Gillespie Harrison in the film The New Guy. He was playing the main character Dizzy Harrison (Gil Harris) when he got to kiss Eliza Dushku.

He has also done work on television as well. He has made guest appearances on shows such as Monk, Scrubs, Criminal Minds, Lost and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Qualls spewed a string of profanity when he was chastised for "ruining" the surprise aspect of a surprise party in an episode of Punk'd.

Qualls was a passenger aboard JetBlue Airways Flight 292 on September 21, 2005, a flight in which the landing gear wouldn't fully retract forcing an emergency landing.

On a more personal note, when asked if he ever wants to have children D.J. has said that he doesn't want to pass on his genetics (because he had cancer once and he thinks he could possibly give a cancer causing gene to his children), but he wouldn't mind adopting.

Filmography

• I'm Reed Fish (2006) (filming)
• Hustle & Flow (2005)
• Little Athens (2005)
• The Core (2003)
• The New Guy (2002)
• Lone Star State of Mind (2002)
• Big Trouble (2002)
• Comic Book Villains (2002) (V)
• Chasing Holden (2001)
• Cherry Falls (2000)
• Road Trip (2000)
• Mama Flora's Family (1998) (TV)

External links

• D.J. Qualls at IMDb
• D.J. Qualls Interview about The New Guy
• The Deej The D.J. Qualls Fanlisting
• Cinecon's DJ Qualls Interview By Jenny Halper
• A Conversation with D.J. Qualls By Steve Head
• Tribute's Star Chat with D.J. Qualls on The Core By Bonnie Laufer
• Tribune's Star Chat with D.J. Qualls on The New Guy By Bonnie Laufer
• About's DJ Qualls Interview By Rebecca Murray and Fred Topel
• The Cinema Source's D.J. Qualls Interview By Mark Plante