After playing the role of Chris Flynn in 2003’s cannibal horror movie, Wrong Turn, actor Desmond Harrington went on to nab major roles in both movies and television.

Wrong Turn began a six-movie franchise that is slated to get a seventh film sometime in 2020, though no release date for Wrong Turn 7 has been announced as of this writing. The only theatrical release in the bunch, Wrong Turn starred several young actors who went on to greater fame alongside Harrington—Eliza Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, and Emmanuelle Chriqui. Harrington’s character was one of the two survivors, alongside Dushku’s character, Jessie Burlingame.

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Before Wrong Turn, Harrington had been active since 1999. He landed roles in Riding in Cars With Boys, We Were Soldiers, and Dark Castle Entertainment’s 2002 horror film, Ghost Ship. Though certainly not his first film role, Wrong Turn helped launch Harrington into a successful career in both film and television post-2003. Since then, he’s gone on to bigger projects, and has a varied career in terms of project type and genre, showing excellent range in his acting capabilities. Here’s everything the actor has done since his role in Wrong Turn.

In 2004, Harrington starred along Final Destination alum Ali Larter and Dominic Purcell in Three Way. Between 2003-2004, Harrington starred in the TV show, Dragnet with Ed O’Neill, Ethan Embry, and Christina Chang as Detective Jimmy McCarron; he was in 10 episodes of the show. Between 2006-2007, Harrington had a recurring role on Sons & Daughters as Wylie Blake. The actor had a brief role on FX’s show Rescue Me, where he played Troy for eight episodes in 2007.

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One of his biggest roles to date was as Detective Joseph ‘Joey’ Quinn on Showtime’s serial killer drama series, Dexter. Quinn was known for his on-again/off-again relationship with Dexter’s adopted sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter). Quinn struggled with his own suspicions about Dexter, particularly in season 5 when he had a private investigator look into him and almost uncovered his secret crimes. Harrington was in 72 episodes of the show between 2008-2013. During that time, he did a few movies including Exit Speed, TiMER, Life is Hot in Cracktown, Not Since You, and The Dark Knight Rises. Harrington also had a recurring role as Jack Bass on Gossip Girl that spanned 11 episodes from 2009-2012.

In 2015, Harrington was on 10 episodes of The Astronaut Wives Club as Alan Shepard. He made a return to horror in the 2016 movie starring Dakota Fanning, The Neon Demon, as Jack McCarther. After that, Harrington primarily returned to TV and played Joe in seven episodes of Sneaky Pete. He became a series regular on Elementary in season 6 as Michael Rowan. The actor is primarily experienced in crime dramas and police procedurals, but has developed a large body of work since Wrong Turn that shows his range and adaptability outside of any single genre.

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About The Author


Jack Wilhelmi
(581 Articles Published)

Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.

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In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh.

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