Jake Abel began signing for television and film roles in his late teens. Despite a deceptively clean-cut appearance, Abel specialized (at least initially) in portrayals of super-intense, conniving, slimy young men with more than a few ulterior motives. He was particularly memorable on the short-lived, prime-time science fiction drama Threshold (as a deeply disturbed adolescent whose exposure to an audio signal gave him super strength) and as a slightly sadistic coach who gets the surprise of his life when he challenges a young female figure skater to a game of hockey in the Disney-produced feature Go Figure (2005). In 2007, Abel signed for two of his first major feature roles: one in the raunchy stoner comedy Strange Wilderness (2008) and a much different supporting turn as the son of an inventor (Greg Kinnear) who gets bilked out of a fortune by the auto industry in the biopic Flash of Genius (2008). In 2010, he played the supporting role of Luke Castellan in Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, later reprising his role in the 2013 sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Abel's résumé also includes appearances on such programs as Summerland, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, ER, Supernatural and Grey's Anatomy.