The series premiered in October 2006 to universal critical acclaim from critics and over 7.7 million viewers. For five seasons Kitsch portrayed the role of Tim Riggins, a high school student who is the fullback/ running back of the Dillon Panthers.

In 2006, Kitsch was cast in his breakout role on the NBC sports teen drama television series Friday Night Lights, based on Peter Berg's 2004 film of the same name and set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. He also appeared in the limited edition coffee table book About Face by celebrity photographer John Russo.

In 2004, he relocated to Los Angeles where he modeled for Diesel and Abercrombie & Fitch. For a time in New York he was homeless and took to sleeping on subway trains in the middle of the night.

Kitsch moved to New York City in 2002, after receiving an opportunity to pursue modeling with IMG he studied acting there as well, and became a nutritionist and personal trainer. Following his injury, Kitsch took nutrition and economics courses at the University of Lethbridge for a year and lived with his brother. Kitsch started playing ice hockey at age three, and played junior ice hockey for the Langley Hornets in the British Columbia Hockey League, before a knee injury ended his career in 2002. He attended Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam. He also has two younger maternal half-sisters. His parents separated when he was one year old, and he and his two older brothers, Brody and Daman, were raised by their mother in a mobile home park. His mother, Susan (Green), worked for the BC Liquor Board, while his father, Drew Kitsch, worked in construction. Kitsch was born in Kelowna, British Columbia.

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