From One Tree Hill to Freakier Friday: Chad Michael Murray’s Best Movies & TV Shows

Chad Michael Murray’s star fully rose in the early 2000s with his starring role in the teen drama series One Tree Hill. Murray plays Lucas Scott, a good-natured high schooler with a passion for basketball whose gentle nature and fierce loyalty to his friends and family made younger Millennials swoon for six seasons.

His on-screen love triangle with Brooke (Hilarie Burton) and Peyton (Sophia Bush) was one of the series’ main pulls, and Murray’s contemplative charm quickly made him into one of the biggest heartthrobs of the decade.

Before getting his big break with One Tree Hill, Murray had a relatively small but memorable part in the first season of Gilmore Girls. He plays Tristan, one of the students at Rory’s new prep school, Chilton, who makes a habit of teasing her incessantly. While he comes off rude and antagonistic, it’s not long before their dynamic transforms after romantic feelings develop.

While Murray only appeared in 11 episodes of Gilmore Girls—because soon after he got the role in One Tree Hill—he is one of Rory’s fan-favourite love interests. In 2016, he even made a cameo appearance as Tristan in the “Spring” chapter of the four-part revival miniseries Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

Chad Michael Murray firmly cemented his reputation as the ultimate 2000s high school crush with his role in A Cinderella Story. He plays Austin Ames, the Prince Charming to Hilary Duff’s Sam, in a modern-day retelling of Cinderella. 

They meet as pen pals online, not knowing they go to the same school because they’re in very different social circles. Then their first physical meeting happens at the school’s masked ball. While A Cinderella Story brought out Murray’s unique boyish charm on full display, it must be said that Jennifer Coolidge as the evil step-mother, Fiona, really steals the show.

In recent years, Chad Michael Murray’s main project has been the ongoing Canadian series Sullivan’s Crossing. Now that the actor is in his 40s, he’s graduated from playing high school crushes to more mature roles. 

Still just as handsome as ever, Murray plays Cal Jones, a man looking for a fresh start in a small town in Nova Scotia. Sparks fly when he meets the series’ protagonist, neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan), after she returns to her hometown to reconnect with her father, played by Gilmore Girls actor Scott Patterson.

In this series, it’s clear that Murray’s ability to bring emotional depth and a sense of groundedness to his characters has only increased with age.

Complete with a curtain haircut and ‘sensitive bad boy with pretentious music taste’ personality, Murray’s Jake Austin in Freaky Friday remains the perfect early ‘00s teen love interest. In Freaky Friday, Lindsay Lohan’s Anna and her mother Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) switch bodies, and only an act of complete selflessness can restore them to their proper selves.

In the meantime, they both try to get through each other’s everyday lives, leading to some truly hilarious scenes in which Murray gets to show off his comedy chops as a young guy who suddenly finds himself falling for the much older Tess (who is actually Anna).

There’s nothing we love more than a classic receiving a truly quality update—and luckily, that’s what we’ve got with Freakier Friday. While there might be one too many jokes about ageing, this next chapter in the story of Anna and Tess is still a fun and nostalgic ride. 

This time, Tess and Anna wind up switching bodies with Anna’s daughter, Harper (Julia Butters), and the daughter of Anna’s fiancée, Lily (Sophia Hammons). While Anna might be about to marry someone else, her ex Jake (played by Murray) makes a return as the girls use their newfound power as adults to try to break up the wedding and get Anna back with Jake. 

While Murray doesn’t play a huge role in this sequel, his baffled expression when Harper (in Anna’s body) tries to seduce him in his record shop is peak comedy.

Season 3 of the Archie comics series Riverdale transformed Chad Michael Murray into one of the season’s main baddies, Edgar Evernever. Edgar is the leader of a local cult called The Farm, which specialises in hypnotising people to make them confront their deepest fears and expose their vulnerabilities.

Murray’s transformation from high school heartthrob to sinister mind controller is smooth and impressive. Using his good looks and effortless charm to reel people into his psychological trap feels like a new skillset Murray unlocked, and we’d love him to use it again soon.

Murray joined the cast of Chosen during its second season, playing the bartender Jacob, who is roped into a deadly game. The series also stars another Gilmore Girls alum (and romantic interest for Rory), Milo Ventimiglia, as another apparently normal man, Ian, selected by a shadowy organisation to carry out an assassination. Each person is sent a box with a gun and a picture of someone to kill within three days, or else their family will be harmed.

Murray’s Jacob starts out trying to do the right thing, but understandably adapts his morals as the stakes become clearer. In this role, Murray shows off his action chops, even sharing in interviews afterwards that he sustained several injuries while filming the action-packed sequences.

In one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first television series, Agent Carter, Murray stars as Jack Thompson, an arrogant and ambitious agent who dreams of leading the SSR and is prepared to do almost anything to get to the top. 

While he’s not a complete baddie, Jack isn’t constrained by a tight moral code, and his relationship to Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is often strained and antagonistic. This role gave Murray the chance to flex his range, playing a morally ambiguous character who is nevertheless hard not to like.

While Murray’s Charlie Todd wasn’t a main character in this classic teen drama series, his role in Season 5 of Dawson’s Creek is quite memorable. Like many of the others discussed on this list, this role is another epitome of an early ‘00s bad boy, and Murray uses his smooth looks and college charm to perfectly pull it off.

While he was troubled but conscientious in other similar parts at the time, here, Charlie is much more of a classic ‘bad boy’ musician. Although he genuinely falls for Joey in the end, his two-timing of Jen and Nora, coupled with his emotional unavailability and immaturity, make him a rather untrustworthy character.