Austin Nichols to guest star in ‘Friday Night Lights’

September 25, 2007, 03:25 PM, By Diane Holloway

Unemployment didn’t last long for Austin Nichols, the Austin actor who starred as the mysterious surfing savant in HBO’s short-lived summer series “John From Cincinnati.”

Nichols, who also appeared in HBO’s “Deadwood,” has come home for a guest-starring role in the Austin-based NBC series “Friday Night Lights.” He’s not in the Oct. 5 season opener, but his multiple-episode story arc will begin soon after. Executive producer Sarah Aubrey will reveal few details but confirms that Nichols will play a teacher at Dillon High.

Best known in Central Texas as a water-skiing champ, like his mother Kay Nichols, Nichols grew up on Lake Austin, attended Casis Elementary and McCallum High School before heading to the University of Southern California where he earned a degree in creative writing in 2002. His father is radiologist David Nichols.