10 Things You Didn’t Know About OTH Star Shantel VanSanten

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9. Childhood

She grew up in Spring, Texas where she attended an all-girls Roman Catholic private secondary school in a classroom with 43 other students at Incarnate Word Academy. When she graduated, she attended the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

  A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Oct 17, 2014 at 11:06am PDT

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8. Early Career

Shantel started modeling when she was only 15-years-old. She first appeared on-screen as a contestant on the NBC reality series Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search, but she didn’t make it very far because she was eliminated in the first episode! She has been featured as a model in Teen Vogue and Seventeen.

A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Jun 22, 2015 at 10:45pm PDT

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7. She Hates Scary Movies

She hates scary movies, but has starred in two: The Final Destination in 2009 and Something Wicked in 2014. Shantel hadn’t seen any of the previous Final Destination films before starring in the fourth installment of the franchise because she was too scared to watch them. But she didn’t seem too scared on set because she ended up doing a lot of her own stunts.

©New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

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6. One Tree Hill

While working on the show One Tree Hill, Shantel VanSanten played the character of Quinn James who is the older sister of Haley James Scott, who is played by Bethany Joy Lotz. Even though she acted as the older sis, in reality Bethany is four years older than Shantel and both of their characters.

Source: www.fanpop.com

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5. Ancestry

VanSanten is a Dutch name. Her ancestry is 75 percent Dutch and 25 percent Norwegian.

  A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Apr 13, 2015 at 5:53pm PDT

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4. She’s Athletic

Shantel is extremely athletic. According to her IMDB profile, she’s skilled at volleyball, knee-and-wakeboarding, track and field, jet-skiing, frisbee, softball, badminton, sprinting and running.

A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Dec 30, 2014 at 1:15pm PST

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3. Shantel and Robert

Most One Tree Hill fans know that on-screen love birds, Shantel and Robert Buckley, are incredibly close off screen, but not in the way we’d all think! Despite rumors of these two being romantically linked they are just really, really close friends. Shantel has a boyfriend named Jon Fletcher who she met when filming the show, The Messengers. In an interview Shantel when asked about her relationship with Buckley, she said: “He’s my best friend, no no no! I mean we sleep in the same bed and nap together and to have that friendship to me is so important. Our chemistry is so much better because of it, because most romances come from a friendship so when you have that base in real life it only helps on screen.” Shantel admitted she can be a bit of nuisance for his love life because she is super protective of her best friend. “I cut them [girls] away. I’m pretty much like, ‘Not good enough, that’s not gonna happen, I don’t like her!'”

A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on May 2, 2015 at 1:52pm PDT

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2. One Tree Hill

Before Shantel got her role on One Tree Hill she never envisioned herself as an actress. Growing up that was never her dream. During an interview with Seventeen magazine, VanSanten said, “I went from thinking I wanted to be a nun at one point, to going to college for journalism! I was involved in the arts and theater from early on, but it wasn’t until I took an acting class when I was 17 that I realized how passionate I felt about it.” When she originally auditioned for the show it was for the character of Alexis, but of course, she landed the role of Quinn James instead.

A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Mar 17, 2016 at 1:32pm PDT

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1. One Tree Hill Besties

Another One Tree Hill co-star Shantel is close with is Bethany Joy Lenz. When asked how difficult it was to to join such a close knit cast like the OTH family so late in the series after they had all been working together for so long, Shantel said it was definitely hard but the fact that she became fast friends with Bethany helped a lot. She said the two struct up an instant friendship and would hang out off screen all the time, going to dinner or the movies or borrowing each others clothes. They were just like real sisters. She was reportedly in the delivery room when Lenz gave birth to her daughter Maria.

A photo posted by Shantel VanSanten (@therealshantel) on Sep 18, 2015 at 1:40pm PDT

Katherine G

Katherine is the Managing Editor for Health and Parenting, but she has a soft spot for entertainment. She loves binging shows on Netflix, reality TV is a guilty pleasure, and country music is her go-to playlist. When she's not writing, she's spending time outdoors, especially with her puppy Zoey!