He’s a jock and a rapper; an aspiring father and a dedicated romantic. Plus he just got selected as one of People Magazine’s picks in the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ issue. One might say 2012 was damn good to model/actor Holden Nowell, and he’d agree.

The Calgary born and raised model represented by Sophia Models never thought he’d be using his chiselled good looks for magazine spreads, lest they be sports publications.

"How I first got into modeling it was more of just kind of a fluke than anything," he says. "I was never too into it; I just wanted to do sports."

Nowell was first sighted in a mall by Mode Model scouts, but as he was already en route to play basketball in a Los Angeles college he thought nothing of it.

"[Playing college ball] was really fun but it didn’t last too long," he says. Less than a year into his freshman stretch, injuries sent him back home. Completely thrown off what he had bet was his path, Nowell had no idea what to do next.

"Friends said, what do you have to lose – go check out this modeling thing," he recalls. "I wasn’t too pumped on it but it was either that or go work construction."

So into Mode he went; developed a hot portfolio and "Badda boom badda bing: two weeks later I moved to New York.

After that, "It all happened pretty quick," he says.

LA a year, New York a year, then back to the west coast for more shoots; the now budding model returned home to work out a visa that would allow him to continue to work in the US.

And that’s when a singer by the name of Carlie Rae Jepsen, then unknown to Nowell, came unexpectedly into his life.

Nowell made the switch from Mode Models to the newly created Sophia Models under the direction of Bill Giofu.

"I knew Bill from Mode and always liked him," Nowell said of the agent. He contacted Giofu from Vancouver and asked that he represent him.

Nowell got a call from the agency telling him that a role in a music video requiring some acting was up for grabs, and that the singer had placed third in the fifth season of Canadian Idol.

"They said this girl, Carly Rae Jepsen," he recalls. "I had never heard of her, unlike everyone else."

"I thought, you never know it could be really good exposure." Despite his only acting experience being some extra spots as a youth, Nowell felt good going into the audition and said he hit it off with everyone right away.

"We all just jelled," he says. And then he endeared himself unto them with his third talent and first passion: a rap.

"All my homies call me H ‘cause no one can really get Holden," he says. "H just kind of stuck. 6trey is like a play on words and an alter ego. I’m 6 foot 3."

Meaning his rap name is H da 6’Trey. I had to hear it to believe it myself, so I checked out his tunes, Hold it Down, Wutchu Gon’ Do (Gangstas Don’t Die), and Hip Hop Save My Life on his Sound Cloud site. The lyrics are pretty hard-core for the Calgarian boy we see mowing the lawn in Jepsen’s video for Call Me Maybe.

"I don’t look like the 17 year old boy next door all the time," he says. "Usually I have a beard or something."

Indeed the "Canadian Ashton Kutcher" has a completely different look as H da 6’Trey.  That’s why his friends down in the States got a kick out of the finish to the Call Me Maybe video.

"Everyone got a good laugh at the end of it," he says. "I wasn’t sold on the ending at first, but now I really like it."

Nowell says his newfound street recognition is the best part of fame thus far, though it’s not exactly on the streets where people recognize the dreamboat from Jepsen’s hit. It’s at the gym.

"It must be the tattoos that people recognize," Nowell says.

Oddly, however, while modeling for a shoot in Milan the new Canadian icon enjoyed daily identification.

"It was cool to get that recognition on a global scale," he says, adding that the grandeur of the career "hasn’t been the money just yet."

Though nothing is set in stone Nowell has some big aspirations for 2013. His agent Giofu says he sees his client "auditioning for great jobs and different gigs," and brandishing a "big campaign of some kind."

"I’m working on a mix as we speak," he says, adding that he hopes to release an EP this year.

"I’ve been doing music a long time," he says. "I’ve been writing music since junior high and getting more serious over the last three years."

It was also during junior high when Nowell first met his girlfriend of roughly one year. Nowell attended junior high at Colonel Irvine and high school at St. Francis here in Calgary.

"I’ve been in love with her since I was 12," he says with a big smile in his voice.

In addition he would love to land a movie role or TV spot, do more modeling and "just book more things".

Though he is currently adjusting to life in Calgary where his girlfriend lives, a move back to the west coast he loves so much could be in the cards. The house will have to be big though, as Nowell wants three to four kids, "when I’m financially stable and established," he confirms.

I’m sure that just as he excelled in a modeling and acting career from ground zero,  so too will he excel at parenthood, a rap career, or anything else he decides to pursue this year.

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Topic Celebrity Interview | Most Read Articles in 2015 | Most Read Articles in 2018 |