
Daren Kagasoff stars as Richard 'Ricky' Underwood, a seventeen year-old junior with a troubled past and emotional issues resulting in promiscuity and a reputation as the school "bad boy". He is the son of Bob Underwood, a domestic abuser, child molester, and drug addict, and a drug addict mother who still lives on the streets. Ricky lived with his foster parents, Margaret and Dr. Shakur, but moved out to an apartment above the butcher shop.
Daren Kagasoff was born and raised in Encino, California (his father is a wholesale diamond dealer and his mother is a designer), Daren is the second of three children. While attending San Francisco State University, he decided to follow his dream of being an actor, so he headed back to L.A.
He defied all the odds at one of his first auditions, when "7th Heaven" creator Brenda Hampton hand-picked him -- from among hundreds of other actors -- for his breakout role as "Ricky" in her new series, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."