Galen Gering was born on February 13, 1971 and raised in Los Angeles, California by hippie parents, Michele de Oñate, an artist, and Alan Gering, a sculptor. His father is from a Russian Jewish family, and his mother is of Basque descent (from Spain). He has an older sister named Charissa. Galen remembers that the hippie lifestyle was hard (in a recent interview he said they lived on Macaroni and Cheese and Top Ramen). He was closest to his grandmother, also an artist.At the age of 18, Galen moved to New York City to start a modeling career and finished high school through the mail. He was hired as a model and traveled most of Europe before going to NYU for a year. He finished his college days at the University of Miami where he studied creative writing and film. In May of 1999, Galen graduated with honors but was busy working on Passions (1999), a job he learned about through his girlfriend Jenna's agent.Galen and Jenna moved to California where both pursued acting careers. He worked on two independent films "Road Trip" and "Pistol Whipped" and was named one of People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people. In January of 2000, Galen and Jenna eloped to Vegas but later had a larger wedding where they announced their nuptials in April of that year.Galen also is a filmmaker and writer and spends time playing Pro-am beach volleyball. He also loves his two dogs, Wyle and Bandit and works with a charity called New Leash For Life. He starred on the NBC Daytime drama Passions (1999) as Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald.