Actor Sebastian Stan's early life was a succession of culture shocks.

Born in Constanta, Romania (Aug. 13, 1963), he moved to Vienna when he was eight. Four years later, just as he was beginning to adjust, his mother married the headmaster of the Rockland County Day School just north of New York City. So Sebastian moved again.

Perhaps those rapid switches in location and identity helped Stan become a better actor. A fixture in class productions at his stepdad's school, he then attended the film school at Rutgers, which led to a year in London studying Shakespeare at the Stagedoor Theater.

Within a year of graduation, Stan snagged parts in "Tony & Tina's Wedding" and was a guest star on "Law and Order," playing a teenager who killed his kidnapper.

Dark, brooding and handsome, Stan was a natural for the part of a younger sorceror in "The Covenant," an update of "The Lost Boys" that was savaged by critics. Nevertheless, Stan got to fly around in the air, made some longstanding friends among his fellow cast members, and flew away with his reputation intact. Around the same time, he also did a sex scene on a roof in the film "The Architect."

It was on the TV screen, though, that Stan began to grow a reputation as a hearthrob. In NBC's "Kings," he played Prince Jack Benjamin, a playboy royal who seduces women by night and finds a way to rendezvous with his gay lover after midnight. That role, coupled with his Eastern European mystique, made Stan popular in New York's gay community.

His character in the CW Network's highly rated "Gossip Girl" is definitely heterosexual, however, having his way with leading lady Leighton Meester in his first episode. The two had begun dating around the same time, and caused a stir among 20-something fans by announcing their engagement on  "Facebook." Later, it was unannounced.

With a resume ranging from Shakespeare to bad movies to pop TV, Stan is beginning to increase his range as an actor. He has, after all, an interesting international background from which to draw.

"I think that’s what acting is," he has said, "finding the things in your own life that are somewhat on a parallel base, and if not, then whatever works in your life to get you to connect with the one in the script."

That was an interview in gay.com, which outed his "Kings" character but not Stan.

Stan also credits veteran actor Lev Schreiber, with whom he appeared in Eric bogosian's 2007 play "Talk Radio," as being both a mentor and an inspiration.

"It was like a huge master class every day in rehearsal with [director] Bob Falls and [star] Liev Schreiber," he recalled. "I spent the whole time at the table taking notes on everything Liev was saying: quoting Shakespeare and how [Talk Radio] was similar to this or that."

One future role is probably inevitable -- Stan would make a perfect vampire. It doesn't hurt that he's from the land of Count Dracula.