New York City-born Peter Facinelli appeared in several productions at the NYU-affiliated Atlantic Theater Company before making his feature film debut as the devil in Rebecca Miller's "Angela" (1995). The boyishly handsome young actor who bears a passing resemblance to Tom Cruise (but with less charisma) caught the attention of critics and audiences as Bret, a teenage hustler surviving on the mean streets of Hollywood, in the TV-movie "The Price of Love" (Fox, 1995). Facinelli then played Tim Matheson's son and the target of his father's jealous ex-lover (Jennie Garth) in "An Unfinished Affair" (ABC, 1996). Other TV roles followed, including the pivotal part of the teen who committed suicide in "After Jimmy" (CBS, 1996) and a college dropout pursuing his dream of a life as a fisherman against his family's wishes in "Calm at Sunset", a 1996 CBS presentation of "Hallmark Hall of Fame". Facinelli co-starred with Amanda Peet and Michael Vartan in the AIDS-themed drama "Touch Me" (1997) before co-starring a high school student in two 1998 features, "Dancer, Texas Pop. 81", with Ethan Embry and Breckin Meyer, and "Can't Hardly Wait", about a graduation night bash that co-starred Embry and Meyer as well as Melissa Joan Hart, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jerry O'Connell.

While he and his wife Jennie Garth welcomed their first child in 1997, Facinelli also found his career settling into a comfortable groove. He had a feature role in the Jennifer Love Hewitt teen hit "Can't Hardly Wait" in 1999 and appeared in the sci-fi film "Supernova" starring Kevin Spacey in 2000. Solid roles in "Riding in Cars With Boys" in 2001 and "Scorpion King" in 2002 were followed by a leading role in the new Fox drama "Fastlane." Facinelli played the white half of a biracial detective team (with Bill Bellamy) whose job is to investigate criminal activity before it is a full-blown police case.