When Christine Varadi loaded up her car and left her hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana at the age of 19, she had her heart set on a week of glitz and glamor in the Big Easy, intending to allow herself to indulge in lingering childhood dreams of finding a Prince Charming of her own in New Orleans. What she got wasn't quite what she'd expected: Michel Lefors was six years her senior and a notorious Cajun playboy (a fact attested to by the friends who'd accompanied her), but his pull proved to be irresistible to Christine, who quickly fell for all the French-laced compliments and sweet talk. In her short time there, the relationship quickly blossomed, and it came as no great surprise when she discovered the fact that she was pregnant two months after returning home. While this normally would have distressed her beyond all comprehension, she put her faith in Michel, who (surprisingly) stepped up to the plate without hesitation by asking her not only to move in, but to marry him. Four months later, during the delivery of their first child, they were hit with the second part of the surprise: the child Christine had been carrying wasn't a child at all, but a set of identical twins, later named Jeremy Michel and Jamie Evan. This turned the quiet lives of Michel and Christine Lefors upside down.

Jeremy and Jamie were followed by another brother, Jason, and a sister, Jennifer, all of whom were raised in a nondescript two story on Saint Mary Street in the lower garden district of New Orleans. To hear the Lefors children tell it, the house is about as haunted as the rest of their fair city, and there's a list of around six ghosts they insist still reside in their parents' home. Jeremy in particular grew up fascinated with the paranormal, evidenced by his repeated viewings of old horror films, The Addams Family, and The Munsters from an abnormally young age, and biking down to the nearest toy shop he could find as soon as he discovered what an Ouija board was to buy one for himself so he could hold séances at the kitchen table with his mother's vanilla-scented tealight candles. While largely unsuccessful with his cardboard imitation, he cites a few incidents in which lights would flicker, cabinets would open and close, and glasses would fall off the countertops on their own. Although most children would have been terrified, Jeremy never felt threatened by the presence in his home, and as he grew older, his obsession simply grew. He supposes this is what ultimately led him to a career in the display of the macabre and morbid, though his original intentions were never to become an actor. He pursued his interests as far as two semesters in Paris at the renowned Institut Métapsychique International, but quickly grew disenchanted with the mechanical presentations given in school and succumbed to the homesickness that resulted from never having left Louisiana prior. He returned home to the most haunted city in America for a self-educated crash course in otherworldly matters, deciding that a classroom setting would not be nearly as educational in his field of choice as learning on his own. Choosing to spend the next couple of years teaching himself while working various odd jobs, the Lalaurie House turned into a favorite spot, and he frequented various other haunted locations in New Orleans and the surrounding areas as he observed and studied, wanting nothing more than to one day earn a place as a paranormal investigator in the city he so loved. What he ended up getting instead was quite different from his original dream: without his knowledge, a few of his friends signed him up for a movie audition that promised to deliver the next great horror film of their time, and in their minds, this was meant only for Jeremy. Although initially very upset upon learning what his friends had done, they somehow managed to talk him into giving it a shot, "just to see what'll happen." The rest, as it turned out, would be history.

The casting was stressful yet exhilirating, the filming even more exciting, and it was soon discovered that, although he had no prior acting experience, Jeremy seemed to have a natural gift for it (an obvious trait, once his personality and past life experiences are taken into consideration). Prior to film completion, the hype surrounding the film gave him a rush that he'd never felt before, even in comparison to his many hours spent observing genuine supernatural occurrances. After the success of The Blair Witch Project, Jeremy was knowingly cast in two laughably bad films the following year; these were viewed as stepping stones to Jeremy, a means of getting his foot in the door so he could push his way to bigger and better things, and after his first handful of films, he became a bit pickier with his roles. Generally favoring independent, low-budget, or a combination of both, with a few notable exceptions, he managed to make a name for himself as, "the greatest scream king you've never heard of," with most people not knowing that his kill count was somewhere in the high hundreds rather early in his career. His versatility in acting and solid work ethic is praised by those he's worked with, and he can easily adapt from victim to brutal serial killer with virtually no down time in between, made evident by his role as Dexter Morgan on Showtime's Dexter. His work on the show earned him a plethora of awards and nominations, not to mention the ensemble awards and nominations the show garnered itself, and because of its mainstream success, as well as the success of his longtime mentor Rob Zombie's films, his name has skyrocketed from cult film star to A-list veteran. Since Dexter (and a brief break from acting), Jeremy has broadened his horizons from the horror genre in a few different ways: initially turned down in favor of Orlando Bloom during casting calls for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he has since flexed his acting chops in a serious way and won himself the role of Thranduil in Peter Jackson's later Hobbit trilogy. The epitome of an acting career nowadays, however, is the opportunity to don a spandex (or in his case, leather) suit, and the titular role of Deadpool was all but tailor written for Jeremy Lefors way back in 1991, when the character was first introduced into the Marvel universe. Career-wise, he has never been more sure of himself or his place on the totem pole, now confident in showing that not only can he spill blood with the best of them, but he can also take on more serious or comedic roles. On top of this, his passion for writing was finally realized in early 2012 after having spent the better part of the last three seasons of Dexter in the thick of the creative process, selling both an original screenplay (Mockingbird) and being chosen to lead an Americanized rewrite (We Are What We Are). Soon after, he took the plunge with an idea that had been floating around in his head for years, and thus his brainchild, Penny Dreadful, was born - and with it all the responsibilities of being a full time writer and producer. In truth, he couldn't be happier with this new line of work.

Despite his penchant for blood, guts, and gore, Jeremy is far from all morbid, all the time, nor does he take himself too seriously. To witness his transformation from any character back into Jeremy is almost as if a light switch were being flicked off. His actual personality is that of your typical laid back, big-hearted Louisianais, and he loves to laugh - especially at his own expense - which far removes Jeremy from the nearly robotic character he grew famous for. It's amazingly easy for him to talk to people, and he will go out of his way to make someone feel at home around him; he also easily falls into a big brother-esque role and is more than willing to bend over backwards for those he cares about, valuing other people far above himself and material possessions. Outside of his film work, he's an avid supporter of various environmental organizations and children's charities as well as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (his sister was diagnosed as schizophrenic in early 2002 and subsequently committed suicide in April of 2012) and Project Semicolon. Having chosen to keep his sister and her struggles out of the public eye while she was alive, he has since used his family's tragedy as a platform from which to publically speak in favor of better understanding mental illness and the profound effects it has on the lives of not only those affected, but those around them. Project Semicolon in particular is near and dear to his heart, and he regularly goes out of his way to make appearances at PS events. On top of this, he's also made personal leaps and bounds over the last few years: after having struggled with the idea for the majority of his life (a battle shown by a long string of failed heterosexual relationships, including three marriages - the most recent of which was to pop goddess Laurelin Quenneville), he finally came out as gay to his closest friends and twin brother in the summer of 2013, and was unintentionally publically outed in 2014. Once the media firestorm died down - and the fangirling increased exponentially - he managed to settle into the new lens he was being avidly viewed through, and came out all the better for it. It's very obvious that this is the most comfortable and happy that he's ever been, especially now that he's made the move to New York City permanently and is living with Jo Astley and Julie Allistair, one of his longtime best friends, and regularly getting into shenanigans on Chester Daniels' Tonight Show.

... filming had just wrapped for the final season of Dexter, and Lefors was struggling with a plethora of rocky patches: the reality of losing the character he would, in total, spend seven years portraying, the possibility that his longtime mentor, Rob Zombie, was stepping back from filmmaking, and the suicide of his much-adored younger sister still fresh in his mind. Lefors dealt with these insecurities by drowning himself in both his relationship with Laurelin Quenneville via breaking out wedding ring #3, as well as work. Soon after his nuptials with the pop goddess, the newlywed couple parted ways, with LQ leaving for a global tour and Lefors returning to New Zealand for further Hobbit filming. In his downtime between second and final reshoots, he elected against any appearances in front of the camera and instead opted to throw himself into writing, penning a rewrite of Mexican horror film We Are What We Are for American audiences, an original story and screenplay, Mockingbird (he would go on to direct this in 2014), and started to throw together the very rough inklings of ideas for what would later become Stranger Things. Reshoots and additional filming for the Hobbit trilogy began in May of 2013; upon his return home in July, he quietly and privately revealed to his then-wife and closest friends a truth he'd struggled against for the majority of his life: he was gay, he'd always been, and that the acceptance had been a long battle with himself. Opting not to tell his parents for the time being, he cited impending divorce #3 as his reason for moving to New York City with longtime close friends Julie Allistair and Jo Astley.

Finally beginning to get comfortable in the skin he was meant to be in, Lefors' overall well-being sharply improved, garnering himself a newfound attitude of positivity he'd never truly been able to encompass before despite many failed attempts. In the midst of riding high on acclaim for his portrayal of Thranduil despite the mixed reception of Jackson's re-imagining of The Hobbit once 2014 rolled around, rumors that had been present since Lefors initially arrived in New Zealand seemingly exploded overnight: one after another, photos, overheard bits of private conversations, and fan encounters of Lefors with a particular Hobbit costar came pouring to the forefront, streaked across every garbage gossip site imaginable. Fearing for the future of his career, his initial reaction was to hide away from the world, spending the better part of a month in radio silence as he refused to go out and took solace in his friends. Never one to fully back down from a challenge, however, Lefors eventually bit the bullet and issued a succinct statement confirming his sexuality but denying any involvement with his costar, insisting that they had simply become close while working together. While the latter half of his statement continued to be picked apart by those who still spotted the two together until mid-2015, the former half garnered him the very opposite of the reaction he'd imagined he would get. Rather than being professionally blacklisted, he was admired for his bravery and refusal to hide who he was as a person. His relief was nearly palpable, but the ultimate culmination came from the offer to reprise his role as Marvel's Deadpool in a much more accurate representation of a character he had loved for years. With his career at its highest point thus far and finally empowered to embrace himself as a whole, Lefors is nearly a brand new person, no longer weighed down by the struggles of his past and fully dedicated to transforming the world into the stage he's always needed.

• Extremely proud of his hometown and his Cajun heritage. His accent is unique, influenced both by his Cajun father and his standard-English mother, as well as the various roles he's taken on and people he's spent time with over the years.

• Fluent in both Cajun and standard French.

• Raised Catholic, currently practicing no religion.

• Considered an actual social media king, especially on Snapchat and Instagram.

• Always a bit of a fitness and nutrition fanatic, he's a Crossfit enthusiast and follower of a slightly modified version (read: can't make himself give up white rice - and the struggle is real when he's in New Orleans) of the paleo diet.

• Drives two motorcycles and a truck, though he relies more on the bikes than anything else. The truck is only used as a last resort or when practicality deems it necessary.

• Clinically-diagnosed cetaphobic; has given himself legitimate panic attacks from something as simple as thinking about whales. On a lesser scale, he's also terrified of Samara from The Ring, though he acknowledges how ironic it is for him to be afraid of anything in the horror industry.

• Plays much dumber than he actually is, because it lessens the expectations others place on him.

• His name is Lefors. Not Jeremy, not Jere, unless you're insanely close to him - and even then it's sometimes strange for him. This started early in his career by others' doing, and it's settled into his mindset so much that being called by his first name feels overly intimate. He doesn't like when people act too familiar or "above their station" with him, and despite being polite otherwise, he's quick to call someone on this in particular.

• etc