Rise to Fame
The gardener who mowed Eva Longoria's lawn every Sunday (and little else) turned out to be enough. Metcalfe landed on Desperate Housewives in 2004 as the shirtless teenage affair partner of Gabrielle Solis, a role that required almost no range but an enormous amount of skin. He'd spent five years on the NBC soap Passions before the Wisteria Lane gig, but playing John Rowland got him a Teen Choice Award and a SAG nomination. They fired him after Season 1 because the writers had nowhere to take him.
In the Spotlight
Post-Desperate Housewives, he upgraded to leading man territory: the TNT Dallas reboot (2012-2014), playing Christopher Ewing alongside Patrick Duffy and Larry Hagman. When that got canceled, Hallmark picked him up for Chesapeake Shores (2016-2021), where he played a musician and actually wrote and performed original songs for the show. In 2024, he opened up about a three-year midlife crisis and the depression he's managed for most of his adult life. The Hallmark era is a long way from Wisteria Lane.
Side Notes
Before the gardener role, he was a serious visual artist. His pencil drawings and paintings were exhibited at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, CT while he was still in high school. He enrolled at NYU Tisch to write and direct; acting caught him by surprise. In 2007, he checked into rehab for alcoholism. His 11-year relationship with actor Cara Santana ended in 2020 when he was photographed with two different women on the same day. That's one way to end an engagement.