JD Vance Says He Was Once Asked to Be an Extra in an Episode of 'One Tree Hill'
"They showed up one day and they said, 'All right, we'll feed you and we'll pay you $300 to be an extra in One Tree Hill,'" he said.
Published Nov. 5 2025, 12:57 p.m. ET
Long before he was accused of having relations with couches and of blindly following Donald Trump, JD Vance was an actor. Well, not really, but he was in an episode of the former CW teen drama One Tree Hill. He said as much in 2024 to a crowd of Trump supporters in Wilmington, N.C., where One Tree Hill was filmed. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, if you're a longtime OTH fan, it's only natural to wonder when Vance was on the show.
The series, which takes place in the fictional small town of Tree Hill, N.C., and was filmed largely in Wilmington, follows two estranged half-brothers whose hatred for each other on and off the basketball court lends itself to tons of drama. How does the vice president fit into all of that? Well, according to him, his minor role happened when he was still in the Marine Corps.
JD Vance says he was in an episode of 'One Tree Hill.'
In a YouTube video posted by Forbes, Vance speaks to the Wilmington crowd on the campaign trail in 2024. He explains that, years ago, he and some other Marines were approached by someone connected with OTH about appearing in the background as extras for an episode. He doesn't explain the exact timeline for when he was on OTH, but there were multiple seasons where soldiers are featured, so it's unlikely that he's lying about his one-off background role.
"I'm going to tell you something I bet very few, maybe no one, knows, is that I actually was an extra in a TV show that was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina," Vance says. He then reveals, "They showed up one day and they said, 'All right, we'll feed you and we'll pay you $300 to be an extra in One Tree Hill.'"
It's hard to say exactly when Vance was on OTH, but one of the main characters visits an Army base in Season 4, which was filmed in 2006, per the Marines. In Season 6, a main character performs a USO show. That season was filmed around 2008 or 2009, judging by when it aired. Apparently, Vance was one of the many background soldiers featured, and many of them are the real thing rather than experienced actors filing in as fake soldiers in the background.
When was JD Vance in the Marine Corps?
Vance was in the Marine Corps from 2003 until 2007. He was also deployed in Iraq at some point in 2005. When Vance was announced as Trump's running mate for the 2024 election, one of the selling points for Vance as vice president was his experience in the military. Since Trump was elected for his second term, Vance has even spoken to soldiers from time to time and commended them for their service.
In March 2025, Vance spoke to the Marines at Quantico. In a YouTube video posted by PBS, Vance admits that he "never made it" to Quantico, but that he has respect for the soldiers there. He also said that one reason he wanted to become vice president was so he could advise the colonels and generals whom he had looked up to and taken orders from as a soldier himself.