Why Asher Adams From All American Looks So Familiar
"All American" is a teen melodrama that premiered on The CW back in 2018. It's loosely based on the true story of Spencer Paysinger, a former New York Giants linebacker who played on their Super Bowl XLVI championship team. And when we say "loosely," that's a bit of an understatement. As with most CW programs, the show takes a plethora of creative liberties with the characters and their storylines. And the character Asher Adams has quite a storyline, indeed.
Initially, he's the heel to main character Spencer James, the shiny new talent who threatens his standing on his high school football team. He struggles with substance abuse. He has to deal with a father who only loves him when he's winning football games. He also struggles to keep up the appearance of wealth in an affluent town where status is everything — even though his family is secretly destitute. And he's played by an actor with an equally alliterative name whom you've probably seen before: Cody Christian.
He had guest roles on Grey's Anatomy and True Blood
As a young boy, Cody Christian got his acting career off the ground with notable guest appearances on some pretty prominent shows. In 2008, he played the "screaming boy" during one of vampire Bill Compton's civil war flashbacks on "True Blood." It's hard to recognize him, though, because he only graces the screen for a few seconds in a distant, blurry shot where he writhes in pain on the battlefield. The episode he appears in, "Sparks Fly Out," is a memorable one not just because it shows how Bill became a vampire, but also because it features one of Lafayette's (played by the late, great Nelsan Ellis) strongest scenes in which he cleverly and humorously stands up to some homophobic townsfolk.
In Season 6, Episode 13 of "Grey's Anatomy," Christian played a young patient named Brad Walker who is hospitalized with mysterious abdominal pain. Unlike his "True Blood" appearance, you definitely get to see his face up close and personal. The doctors on the show — Alex in particular — struggle to find the source of his pain because their testing is inconclusive. But when some tubing kinks and he starts bleeding internally, Alex jumps in to save the day with an emergency surgical procedure.
He was Mike Montgomery on Pretty Little Liars
Almost a decade before "All American" debuted on The CW, Cody Christian played Mike Montgomery on "Pretty Little Liars." The show originally aired on the ABC Family network, but fans of the show can watch reruns on HBO Max right now. It's a mystery thriller about four high school friends with sordid pasts who get threatened to be exposed by a mysterious person a year after one of their best friends dies. In the show, Christian plays Mike Montgomery, brother of Aria Montgomery. He struggles with his mental health in the wake of his parents' divorce, and receives a threatening cow tongue in the mail when he's asked to testify in court about the mysterious "A."
Unlike some of his other projects, Christian was credited as Cody Allen Christian when he was on "Pretty Little Liars." But at some point between That show and his next big gig, he decided to drop his middle name. It's unclear as to why he decided on the name change, but it might have something to do with the enhanced name recognition that comes with a more alliterative moniker.
He was Theo Raeken on Teen Wolf
After Cody Christian was done feeling pretty and lying a little, he landed a big role on the MTV hit "Teen Wolf." Again, the premise for this show was loosely based on the storyline from the original 1986 movie of the same name starring Michael J. Fox. Christian played Theo Raeken, a chimera creature who was experimented on and spliced with coyote and wolf powers. He is a truly ruthless character who injures and sacrifices members of his own family just to grow more powerful.
"Teen Wolf" was a big hit for MTV. It still has approval ratings of over 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and it got Christian nominated for a Teen Choice Award in 2017. For better or worse, he lost to co-star Tyler Posey — which makes sense if you think about it, seeing as how he was the star of the show.
According to his IMDb page, Christian was born in 1995 — meaning that he's 26 years old now and arguably approaching the expiration date for his ability to play teen heartthrobs. That also means he might soon be ready to accept more adult roles as his career progresses.