Daren Maxwell Kagasoff is an American actor. He currently stars as Ricky Underwood on the ABC Family

ABC Family

ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...

 teen soap, The Secret Life of the American Teenager

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...

.

Early life

Kagasoff was born in Encino, California to a designer and a wholesale diamond dealer. He is the middle of three children; he has an older brother, Justin, and a younger sister, Natalie. He attended Montclair Prep for high school and participated in his school's baseball team. At MCP, Daren's best friend was Saachi Cywinski, who have managed to keep their friendship strong. Attending school at San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

, he decided to become an actor. He moved to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and landed the leading role in a local theatre production of Suburbia, a play that has been adapted into the 1996 film

Suburbia (film)

Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1984 film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a minimalist, punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes...

 of the same name.

Career

After taking acting lessons, Kagasoff began auditioning for television and film roles. On one of his first auditions, he was hand-picked by Brenda Hampton

Brenda Hampton

Brenda Hampton is an American television show creator, writer and producer. She created, wrote and produced 7th Heaven, Fat Actress and The Secret Life of the American Teenager.-Life and career:...

 to star as Ricky Underwood in the ABC Family

ABC Family

ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...

 television series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...

.

In the January 2010 spread of VMAN, he gave an interview saying that the celebrities that he would like to be compared with are Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...

 and Emile Hirsch

Emile Hirsch

Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild. In...

. He also said that despite liking television roles, he'd like to appear in movies and plays.
For his role of Ricky Underwood in The Secret Life, he is often compared to Luke Perry

Luke Perry

Luke Perry is an American actor. Perry starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role he played from 1990–95, and then from 1998–2000. Much publicity was garnered over the fact that even though he was playing a sixteen-year-old when 90210 began, Perry was actually in his...

's role in Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...

.

Filmography

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008+	The Secret Life of the American Teenager The Secret Life of the American Teenager The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...	Richard "Ricky" Underwood	2008–present (86 episodes)

Awards

Year	Award	Work	Category	Result
2009	Teen Choice Awards Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...	The Secret Life of the American Teenager The Secret Life of the American Teenager The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...	Choice Summer TV Star: Male
			Choice TV Breakout Star: Male
2010			Choice TV Actor: Drama
			Choice Summer TV Star: Male
2011			Choice TV Actor: Drama

External links