Taylor Kinney is an American actor and model. On TV, he is best known for his role as Kelly Severide on the hit series, Chicago Fire (2012), and its spin-off Chicago P.D. (2014) on NBC, also as Mason Lockwood on The Vampire Diaries (2009), on The CW; and as Glenn Morrison on Trauma (2009) on NBC. His film work includes The Other Woman (2014), Consumed (2015), and The Forest (2016). Taylor was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Pamela Heisler, a dental hygienist, and Daniel Kinney, a banker. He is of German, Swiss-German, and English ancestry. He and his three brothers were raised in Neffsville, Pennsylvania by their single mother. Kinney studied business management at West Virginia University, before developing an interest in acting.‍‍