Aaron John O'Connell was born on April 8, 1986. He is an American model and actor. He is known for playing the character Wyatt Cryer in a popular TV show called The Haves and the Have Nots, which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Early life

O'Connell is the only son of Mark O'Connell, a former player for the Cincinnati Bengals, and Kathryn Deeble O'Connell. He has three sisters named Amy, Abby, and Anna. He graduated from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis in 2004. While in high school, he played football, basketball, and baseball. As a child, his mother's father, Wayne, taught him how to play the piano. In 2008, O'Connell graduated from Purdue University's College of Health and Human Sciences, where he earned a bachelor's degree in health and fitness.

Career

In 2006, O'Connell signed with Ford Models while still in college. He appeared in magazines such as GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Vogue Paris, Arena Homme +, and VMAN. O'Connell also worked with companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hanes, Lucky Brand Jeans, Ralph Lauren, Champion, and Jockey.

O'Connell began his career at the Actors Studio in Chicago. He moved permanently to Los Angeles to continue modeling and start acting. He took acting classes and later landed roles in advertisements, including a Liquid-Plumr commercial. This commercial caught the attention of filmmaker Tyler Perry. O'Connell was surprised when Perry's production company contacted him about trying out for a role in a new television series. Perry personally reached out to O'Connell and asked him to audition over Skype. Perry then traveled to Los Angeles to meet with O'Connell about the role of Wyatt on The Haves and the Have Nots. O'Connell was the first actor in the group to be cast for the show.

In 2015, O'Connell starred in the Hallmark Channel comedy 12 Gifts of Christmas as Marc Rehnquist, a company executive who learns the true meaning of Christmas through a personal shopper. He also played a main role in A Prince for Christmas. In 2017, he appeared in Hallmark Channel's With Love, Christmas as Donovan Goodwin, with Emilie Ullerup as his co-star.

Personal life

O'Connell became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, model Natalie Pack, on September 4, 2017. They got married on July 21, 2018, at Lake Como in Italy. They had a son in August 2022. In 2013, he got his private pilot's license and flies a Cirrus SR22.