Hot felon to high fashion: Where is Jeremy Meeks now?
On any given day, thousands of prison mugshots are taken and quickly forgotten. Jeremy Meeks' was anything but – it became a global sensation. But why?
The Stockton Police Department in California uploaded his booking photograph to Facebook in June 2014 after Meeks was caught in possession of a gun. They thought that after uploading the photo, they’d be able to learn more about the crime.
Instead, the image went viral for an entirely different reason. Millions of people were more interested in Meeks' striking blue eyes and model-like features, earning him the nickname ‘The Hot Felon’. Crime+Investigation examines how a booking photograph became a global phenomenon – and what Jeremy Meeks has made of the unlikely career it launched.
The mugshot that changed everything
Within days, modelling agencies were trying to contact a man who was still sitting in jail awaiting trial. It was one of the internet's most unlikely success stories. But behind the viral fame was a lengthy criminal history that many people knew little about.
Meeks had also served a few years in prison for grand theft auto. He was charged several more times prior to that viral photo for a variety of crimes. It’s safe to say the criminal-slash-model had a chequered past before finding fame.
'I'm in a place where I will be able to provide for my family and really change my life', Meeks told news outlets in 2015, after being signed to White Cross Management before reporting to prison.
A life shaped by crime
Long before social media turned him into an overnight celebrity, Jeremy Meeks had spent much of his life in and out of the criminal justice system.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, and raised in Stockton, Meeks has since spoken openly about growing up in an unstable environment. Both of his parents struggled with heroin addiction, and he has described a childhood surrounded by gangs, violence and crime. In later interviews, he claimed he spent more than a decade moving through juvenile detention centres and prisons.
By the time he was arrested in 2014, Meeks already had convictions that included grand theft, identity theft, forgery and grand theft auto. His latest arrest came after police found a loaded semi-automatic handgun, extended magazines and ammunition during a traffic stop connected to Operation Ceasefire, a crackdown on gang activity in Stockton.
Breaking the internet
Almost immediately after his booking photo appeared online, comments flooded social media. People weren't discussing the charges.
The photograph was shared hundreds of thousands of times, spawning memes, headlines and several articles asking how someone in police custody could look like a professional model. The nickname ‘Hot Felon’ quickly followed, and before Meeks had even stood trial, modelling agencies were involved.
The attention didn't stop at social media. Meeks later revealed he was getting around 300 letters a day in prison, many from complete strangers. Fans sent him money, gifts and even explicit photographs. At one point, so many members of the public booked prison visitation slots that his own family struggled to see him.
‘It was random people,’ Jeremy later said, explaining that the unexpected fame often prevented his loved ones from visiting him.
Jeremy Meeks: from prison to the runway
But what happened when Jeremy Meeks left prison? In February 2015, Meeks was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to 27 months in prison. Thanks to time already served and good behaviour, he was released in March 2016 after around 13 months behind bars.
Almost immediately, his life changed. Within days of leaving prison, Meeks signed with a Los Angeles modelling agency that had contacted him while he was still incarcerated. What followed was a career few could have predicted.
He walked the runway for designers including Tommy Hilfiger and Philipp Plein, appeared in international fashion campaigns and began travelling the world as a professional model. He later expanded into acting, landing roles in films.
More than a decade after his mugshot first went viral, Meeks has continued to build a career well beyond modelling. In 2024, he released his autobiography, Model Citizen, in which he reflected on his troubled upbringing, years in prison and unlikely rise to international fame.
Meeks has also continued acting, launched fashion projects and spoken publicly about focusing on personal growth rather than the lifestyle that once landed him behind bars.
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