Whatever Happened To Joshua Jackson?

January, 1998. The days were short, the nights were long, and TV fans were settling in for a long, cold winter. Little did we know that the fledgling WB Network was about to set our screens ablaze with a soapy teen series about a tight-knit group of friends struggling with life and love and all sorts of other issues in the small town of Capeside, Massachusetts. Conceived and produced by Scream mastermind Kevin Williamson, Dawson's Creek took a refreshingly candid approach to teen drama with its blend of crackling dialogue, poignant, timely plot lines, and frank, honest talk about sex. While that approach earned the ire of parents and watchdog groups before the series even premiered, the show's "of the time" aesthetic made it an instant hit with its key demographic: teenagers.

It also made overnight stars of its young leads, James van der Beek, Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, and Joshua Jackson. They've all seen their share of professional ebbs and flows since their Creek days ended — particularly Jackson, who's been all but absent from both big and small screens of late. That doesn't mean the onetime captain of the "True Love" hasn't been busy since the show that made him a star went off the air, so let's have a look at what he's been up to over the years.

Joshua Jackson would play the part of Pacey Witter for the next five years (and a whopping 128 episodes) of his life. In that time, he landed a handful of film roles, Cruel Intentions and The Laramie Project among them. With big-screen projects rolling in, many expected to Jackson to stay the course once Dawson's Creek ended its run. In a surprise move, Jackson — who fell in love with theater after playing Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in his youth — chose to return to the stage for one of his first post-Creek gigs.

The actor actually moved to the UK in 2005 and made his professional theater debut in a West End production of David Mamet's two-person play A Life in the Theater, starring opposite none other than Professor X himself, Sir Patrick Stewart. While the play premiered to largely mixed reviews, Jackson proved himself opposite the legendary Stewart — and proved his post-Creek days would be nothing if not interesting.

Though his film career still hasn't quite taken off they way many expected, Jackson's television career got a huge bump in 2008 when he signed on for a starring role in J.J. Abrams' trippy sci-fi procedural Fringe. The series found Jackson playing Peter Bishop, a brilliant but shifty young man whose mad scientist father is sought by the FBI to help them solve some of their less conventional cases. The show, which co-starred Anna Torv (Mindhunters) and Lance Reddick (The Wire, John Wick franchise) premiered in 2008 to critical success and strong ratings. Sadly, even as Fringe remained a critics' darling over its five-season run — and featured career-best work from Jackson and the rest of the cast — the ratings didn't last, and the show aired its finale in January of 2013.  

Still, Fringe's disappointments didn't stop Jackson from branching out for a little life beyond the show. Between the series' season 3 finale and season 4 premiere, he actually tried his hand as a comic book writer, penning the first chapter of DC's Beyond the Fringe series. He wrote a wild story, too — the sort that makes you wonder if he shouldn't do a little more writing in the future. Or in the past. Or in some parallel dimension while tripping acid and battling evil versions of the people he loves. Gah, Fringe was amazing!   

Jackson's cameo on The Simpsons is great, but it may not be his finest. That honor arguably belongs to his hilarious appearance on a season 2 episode of Netflix's The Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt that finds Kimmy reeling at the thought of another Fake Christmas come and gone, and seeking solace in a romantic evening away with her would-be beau Dong. The night unfolds in a deserted upstate hotel, and (after some Home Alone-style shenanigans) finds Kimmy and Dong on the verge of taking their relationship to the next level.

They'll need condoms first, of course. That's where Purvis the convenience store clerk (Jackson clad in a bowling shirt and sporting Pacey bangs) comes in. When Kimmy — who's only seen season 1 of Dawson's Creek "for totally normal reasons" — lays eyes on him, things get seriously funny as Purvis proceeds to lay out some very specific opinions about the ins and outs of sexual relationships on the Creek, and one hilarious insight about sex itself.   

That hockey brawl aside, Joshua Jackson appears to be a charming, refreshingly down to earth sort of guy with a wicked dry sense of humor. He's also never shied away from the show or the role that made him famous. More often than not, he embraces fans' love for Dawson's Creek — and, of course, their undying adoration for his character, Pacey Witter.

While promoting Fringe at San Diego Comic Con in 2010, Jackson took his own love of all things Pacey to new bold heights with the advent of Pacey Con, a convention celebrating "The greatest character in television history. Ever. Period." Among the planned events were a Pacey-centric Q&A and dramatic readings of Jackson's own Pacey Witter fan fiction. We can only imagine that most Comic Con fans were more than a little bit bewildered at the sight of Jackson cruising the grounds in full Pacey attire with a Pacey Con banner and a bullhorn, but it should be noted that he was clandestinely shooting a skit for Funny or Die the whole time — and that skit turned out to be one of their funniest bits. Ever. Period.

Of course, part of the fun of that reunion was seeing how the original cast had grown up over the years. While Jackson still has a bit of a baby face in real life, he's certainly grown up in terms of the roles he's chosen to play of late. The actor proved he was more than ready to tackle heavier material when he signed on as co-star of the Showtime series The Affair in 2014. The show found Jackson playing Cole Lockhart, a husband on the wrong end of an extramarital affair, and proved a critical hit over its 34-episode run.

The actor continued his recent run of patently adult fare by returning to the stage for a Broadway revival of Mark Medoff's Tony-winning romantic drama Children of a Lesser God — and earned rave reviews for his performance. As for what that future might hold, Jackson has nothing booked beyond his Broadway debut, but given that he still seems to be coming into his own as a performer, fans should be more than a little bit excited to see what he does next.