A native Australian, Julian McMahon years ago threw himself into learning an American accent and today can easily slip in and out of it when acting. "I use a standard American pronunciation," says McMahon. "The difficulty comes when an actor has to think about his accent, because you can’t relax and think about your role as much."

Born and raised in Sydney, McMahon was the second of three children. He studied law at the University of Sydney, but he became bored with his classes after his first year and began a modeling career, working primarily in commercials. In 1987 he headed off for print modeling assignments in Los Angeles, New York, Milan, Rome, Paris and other international fashion centers. His appearance in a TV commercial promoting jeans in his home country made him popular enough to be cast as the lead in an Australian "Dynasty"-like series, in which he played a wealthy heir. After working for 18 months on the series, he starred on "Home and Away," another successful series, and won a Best Actor award from a national magazine.

McMahon later performed on stage, appearing in a musical version of "Home and Away" in Britain, as well as in "Love Letters" in Sydney and Melbourne. After a lead role in the feature film "Exchange Lifeguards" (which also starred Elliott Gould), he went to Los Angeles to read for American projects. In 1992 he was cast as Ian Rain on NBC’s daytime drama "Another World." Two years later, he left to appear in various plays in Los Angeles. He also appeared in the feature films "Women in Control" and "Magenta" before landing his role on "Profiler." During the series 1997 hiatus, he starred in the thriller feature "In Quiet Night."

Playing an intense task-force detective, McMahon believes his cynical character is not as tough as he appears. "John Grant is a bit of a loner," he says. "But underneath his strong countenance, you have a very sensitive person whom nobody has gotten in touch with for a very long time. He likes to get the bad guys and hates to see people suffer. That’s why he wants to get down to business and not waste time."