Chandler Massey

In December 2009, after completing his first quarter at UCLA, Massey successfully auditioned for the role of Will Horton on NBC’s daytime drama Days of Our Lives,[8] joining the cast in 2010. He had previously auditioned for Will when Dylan Patton was cast.[14] For this role, Massey became the first actor in history to win a Daytime Emmy for portraying a gay character, when he won the Outstanding Younger Actor category in 2012.[3] He had been nominated in the same category the previous year. In February 2013, Massey's younger brother, Christian, appeared as a young Will Horton on Days of Our Lives in a flashback.[15]

In June 2013, Massey won his second consecutive Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor.[4][16] Massey revealed that he intended to return to school instead of renewing his contract, which was set to expire in December 2013.[17] Days executive producer Ken Corday stated that his character would not be recast, and that the door would be open in case Massey decided to return;[18] but Massey expressed that he would support a recast.[19] On August 23, 2013, it was announced that Massey had taped his final episode that day, and that a recast had already been made.[20][21] Massey was let out of his contract early, for which he thanked Days and NBC.[20] On June 22, 2014, Massey won his third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series.[22] Massey made Daytime Emmys history with his three consecutive wins in the Younger Actor category. While he is the second actor to win the category three times – following Jonathan Jackson, who won for General Hospital in 1995, 1998, and 1999 – he is the first to do so in consecutive years.[23][24][25] Massey is also the first actor from Days of Our Lives ever to win three Emmys, consecutive or otherwise.[24][5]

On May 8, 2017, Entertainment Weekly announced that Massey was reprising the role of Will on Days of Our Lives,[27][28] and Massey expressed excitement at bringing the character back.[27] His new episodes began airing on September 15, 2017.[29] Kristyn Burtt of SheKnows said Massey's return was a "huge watershed moment" for the network;[30] in 2018, Massey was again nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.[6]

Massey has made guest appearances in several drama series, including One Tree Hill and Army Wives, as well as appeared in the HBO comedy series, Eastbound & Down. In 2011, he starred in his first feature film, 16-Love, in which he portrayed Farrell Gambles, a fun-loving junior tennis player, and the love interest of Lindsey Shaw's lead character, Ally Mash. Backstage wrote that he gave "levels to his character" as the "boyish, smitten, too-romantic-to-be-true athlete next door."[31] Following its release in January 2012, the film topped iTunes' Sports Movies chart for several weeks.

Massey is also a musician, serving as the keyboardist and one of the two clean vocalists in the metal band And Still I Rise.[32]