One Tree Hill Wiki
Register
Advertisement
One Tree Hill Wiki

Chris Keller was a recurring character between seasons two and four of One Tree Hill before returning as a series regular in the ninth and final season, portrayed by Tyler Hilton.

A musician from Tree Hill, North Carolina, Chris Keller was the first to take notice of Haley James Scott's musical talent and helped her at the start of her career. Due to his arrogance and his knack for interfering in the personal lives of the main characters, he was not well-liked by many of his peers, particularly Nathan Scott, Lucas Scott, and Brooke Davis. He first caused interference in Nathan and Haley's marriage and later, Brooke and Lucas's relationship when he slept with Brooke.

He later left Tree Hill to go on tour, running into the group when he passed through Honey Grove, Texas. After being gone for 8 years, he returned to Tree Hill to help Haley with Red Bedroom Records and assisted Dan Scott and Julian Baker in their mission to rescue Nathan.

Character arc[]

Season 2[]

00321630282

Chris and Haley leave on tour. ("The Trick Is to Keep Breathing")

Chris Keller was first introduced in Season 2 as a music record store employee. He was approached by Peyton Sawyer to sing at the Tric Club, but refused to sing when he saw people weren't listening, prompting Haley James Scott to sing instead. He then began a partnership with Haley to give her an opportunity to realize her dream and become a singer. They become closer and closer and even kissed but Haley eventually turned him down when he asked her to go on a tour with him, as she wanted to save her marriage. He later came back, along with The Wreckers at Tric and asked Haley again, this time she agreed. To promote the tour, the two were mistaken for a couple, which pleased Chris, but angered both Haley and Nathan Scott. Nathan visited Haley on tour to mend any broken hearts and feelings, only to discover she wasn't wearing her wedding band. Nathan drew up annulment papers, signed them and sent them to Haley, who was still on the tour. Once Haley got the annulment papers signed by Nathan, she dropped the Tour and went back to Tree Hill.

Season 3[]

NSCK

Chris agrees to help Haley with her music.("From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea")

Chris returned in Season 3 to help Haley find her inspiration back as Nathan paid him for it fearing she was losing her talent. Dan Scott paid him as well, but it was to seduce Haley something Chris didn't do. However, when he was chosen by Brooke Davis during the fantasy boy draft (which Rachel Gatina had planned to make her way to Lucas), he had a drunken one night stand with her which he had wanted to continue but she regretted him. He then had money troubles and had to ask Nathan for help. They stole money from a poker table but ended up in water, making this a complete failure. Chris sold his guitar to pay for Haley's record and then de ided to leave Tree Hill to go restart his career.

Season 4[]

4x17 002

Chris at the Honey Grove prom. ("It Gets the Worst at Night")

He also appears in "It Gets the Worst at Night". While on the search for Mouth; Lucas, Peyton, Brooke, Nathan, Haley, who is pregnant, and Skills are stranded after their car breaks down. Chris Keller's tour bus appears and helps the group make it to Texas to help Mouth, who is in jail. On the bus, Chris flirts with Haley and then proceeds to call her "plump" to which she replies with "I'm pregnant you idiot". Chris then crashes Honey Grove's prom with the gang and spends sometime talking with Brooke, telling her he is lonely later on (something he also alluded to when talking to Nathan on the tour bus previously). Chris then left Honey Grove to continue his tour but not before claiming that "Chris Keller's work here is done."

Season 9[]

Chris Keller infobox

After being out of the loop for 8 years, Chris returns to Tree Hill to help Haley with her record label. Haley refuses at first, but then decides to give him a chance. He turns out to know some things about managing a label. He helps singer/actress Alex Dupre with her record. He is bluntly rude at first, telling her the song is "crap", but then fixes the song and helps her with the rest of the album. Then he convinces her to leave to go on tour, causing her to leave her boyfriend Chase Adams. Chase hates him at first, but they later become best friends, going to strip clubs and getting drunk together when bad things happen. They go to a strip club when Alex leaves Chase, and a drunken Chase sleeps with a beautiful blond girl, finding out the next day that she is Chris's girlfriend. He feels guilty, but continues to hook up with her until Chris finds out. Chris is more upset with her than Chase, saying "Why the hell are you sleeping with my best friend?" and the two go to a strip club again. He also advises Chase not to jump to the conclusion that Chuck is being abused by his father and bails him out of jail when Chase gets into trouble.

He also agrees to help Dan and Julian save Nathan, who was kidnapped. He, under Dan's instructions, kills one of the kidnappers and creates a distraction, allowing Dan to get into the abandoned warehouse where Nathan was being held. After he completed the two things Dan asked him to do, he runs away, yelling "Chris Keller's work here is done." He then disappears for a few episodes, and when he shows up again, Chase and Haley thought he had gone away on tour, but really he was afraid he would be arrested for killing one of the kidnappers while participating in Nathan's rescue. He claimed that he was "on the lam." 

As a thank you for helping out in the rescue mission, Nathan gives Chris the same guitar he had sold to pay for Haley's record years ago and the two are on better terms. He performs one last show at Tric in the last episode, singing an altered rock version of Loaded Gun in hopes to impress a record executive named Frankie Parks. She is uninterested at first, claiming she is looking for rock acts, not country, but then approaches him after he sings the rock version taking back her earlier claims, but he refuses. Then he is approached by Haley, who says she is looking for new artists on the label, and says she wants him to be the next artist.

Relationships[]

Romances[]

ChrisB

Chris and Brooke before they had sex. ("The Worst Day Since Yesterday")

After meeting new talent Haley James Scott, Chris decided to start to romantically pursue her despite her being married. So they started to record together and started to grow closer over their shared interest in music and although Haley's husband Nathan threaten Chris to stay away from Haley, Chris eventually kissed Haley and offered for her to come away on tour with him. Haley almost came and kissed Chris once again but realized she couldn't leave Nathan. Chris later returned to Tree Hill and finally went on tour with Haley but this time there were no romantic feelings between the two, although they had to pretend that they were in a relationship.

After Haley left the tour to save her marriage, Chris returned later to Tree Hill and attracted interest from Haley's fellow cheerleader Rachel Gatina but it was short-lived and Chris didn't seem to even notice it. When Brooke Davis tried to get back at Rachel she picked Chris in the fantasy-boy-draft but it backfired on her and the two went out on a date where after getting drunk the two slept together. Chris left on tour and once again meet up with both Haley and Brooke though there was nothing sexual between either of them. Sometime later, he expressed interest in Peyton.

Career[]

CKS

Chris recording before he made it.

Chris started to work in a record shop owned by Max while recording his music. He eventually became successful enough to go on tour but he later returned to Tree Hill and this time went on tour with the Wreckers and Haley James Scott which was highly successful and made Chris quite famous across the country. But after the tour finished he was out of money and struggled to pay for his recording fees and was paid by Nathan Scott to help Haley record but he lost all this money gambling and had to sell his favourite guitar to pay off his debts. But he later fully recovered and went on his own tour across the country.

Trivia[]

  • Chris often referred to himself in third person causing much annoyance to those surrounding him.
  • Chris Keller started out as a minor antagonist in Season 2, an anti-hero in Season 3 and Season 4, then became a series regular in Season 9.
  • Chris and Tyler Hilton's music is highly featured on the One Tree Hill soundtrack.
  • When Chris comes back to Tree Hill he used a fake name to email Haley so she would employ him. They emailed and Haley liked 'Harry Johnson'.
  • Out of all the main male characters, Chris has appeared in the lowest amount of episodes.
  • Chris Keller is the name of a major character in the Arthur Miller play 'All My Sons'.
  • Chris has a rule when it comes to sleeping with girls. He won't sleep with cheerleaders, unless it's with 3 of them.
  • Although his age is not mentioned, it's presumed that he's around the same age as the rest of the younger characters as he could've been 18/19, even though he never attended Tree Hill High. It's presumed by season 9, he's 28-29 years old.
  • He likes number 3 pencils
  • He named his guitar Haley James. He tells Nathan it was after a "porn star".
Advertisement