Rathbone was born in Singapore, the son of American parents Randee Lynn (née Brauner) and Monroe Jackson Rathbone IV. His great-grandfather, Monroe Jackson Rathbone II, was the chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey, which later became Exxon; Rathbone is distantly related to Civil War general Stonewall Jackson and British actor Basil Rathbone. Because of his father\'s job at Mobil Oil, Rathbone has lived in places ranging from Indonesia to Midland, Texas. He attended Trinity School of Midland, a college preparatory school, and started out in local theater in Midland with the youth actors program "The Pickwick Players", initially doing musical theatre. For his junior and senior years of high school, Rathbone attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, a private school for the arts in Michigan, where he majored in acting. After graduation, he had planned to go to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, but went instead to Los Angeles to experiment with film acting.\n', '
After being in Los Angeles for a short time, Rathbone was cast in Disney 411, where he interviewed up-and-coming personalities like Hilary Duff and the sister duo Aly & AJ. He also had guest roles on The O.C. and Close to Home. His film roles include work in Molding Clay, Pray for Morning, and Travis and Henry. In 2005, he got the role of Nicholas Fiske in ABC Family\'s original series Beautiful People. In a 2008 interview, he stated it was his first leading role and was his most difficult role to fit into. Rathbone also played a role in Criminal Minds as Adam and Amanda.\n', '
In 2008, he played Jasper Hale in the film Twilight, based on the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer. He reprised his role in the sequels to Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. In 2009, Rathbone played Jeremy in S. Darko. In addition to that role, he won kudos for his performance as a serial killer on Criminal Minds. Rathbone played the role of Sokka in The Last Airbender, a 2010 film based on the animated series. Though the film was a commercial hit, it was universally panned by critics, particularly for Rathbone-a white actor-playing the role of Sokka, who in the TV series was Inuit.\n', '