At the age of 22, this totally self-possessed Sagittarian scion of sang-froid is just reaching his modeling stride. In other words, Joel McMillan is so cool he's hot.

Under the guidance of career guru Jason Kanner, a series of high-visibility campaigns for Calvin Klein Jeans, CK, Valentino, Polo Sport, Ralph, V2 and even Samsonite (who else could make a luggage line seem sexy?) have made Joel McMillan one of the top faces in the industry.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Hinton, Alberta, near the Canadian Rockies. I was really lucky, our house was right across from a lake, so I got to swim all summer and did a lot of skiing every winter.

What about school?

My family moved to Calgary when I was eight. I wouldn't say I was the most popular kid, but I had lots of friends and I was always really into sports, so school was a lot of fun for me. I played soccer and then in high school mostly basketball.

How did you get discovered?

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do so I took a year out after my first year of University. I was working as a waiter while I studied for my pilot's license and one day Dionne Williams came in to the restaurant. He owns a scouting agency in Calgary called Gianelli and he said I should try out for modeling and gave me his card. Now I learned later that Dionne is a serious scout, but he's a drag queen, so I was kind of suspicious and didn't call him back.

Then three months later he came into the restaurant again, and he told me a photographer from New York was coming into Calgary to do some testing. It all seemed very bizarre to me and I was still extremely skeptical, but after talking to some of his models I realized he was legit and agreed to do the shoot with the photographer, Zane Williams. Zane was very professional and used to doing testing, so he coached me, telling me how to stand, where to look etc. I think I paid $300 for the prints and film and I thought the results were pretty good, so I figured it was worth it.

What happened next?

Nothing really, and then three months later I got a call from Calvin French at Boss Models. He said they wanted me to come down to New York to meet with them and they were willing to pay for the plane ticket. Dionne told me that if I could get started modeling in New York I'd be able to work anywhere in the world, so I agreed to come down. At the time I was thinking about it more for just the experience and to see New York, I wasn't thinking I was going to come down here and kick ass or anything.