Born in St Petersburg, Florida, Justin Hires was attracted to acting at a young age. He performed at St. Petersburg's Little Theater and in the local American Stage Theater Company's "Shakespeare in the Park" productions before heading to Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School where he was able to continue to put his talents on display.
While still in college at Clark Atlanta University, Hires was cast in the films "The Gospel" (2005) and "Stomp the Yard" (2007). He was also a DJ for the college radio station, which led him to be chosen as a VJ for the new MTVU network. After college he appeared in the series "Disaster Date" (MTV 2009-2011).
In 2010, Hires was in Affion Crockett's extremely popular internet spoof of Chris Brown's video "Deuces," called "Douche It." Later that year he appeared in Crockett's sketch comedy show "In the Flow with Affion Crockett" (Fox, 2011), executive produced by Jamie Foxx. Hires went on to make a number of appearances on the Peabody-winning sketch series "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central, 2012-15) and had a supporting role in the big screen hit "21 Jump Street" (2012).
In 2014, Hires became one of the core cast members on the hidden camera comedy show "Jerks With Cameras" (MTV 2014). Hires broke through with a starring role on the procedural buddy-cop show "Rush Hour" (CBS 2016), but the poorly received show was canceled in the midst of its first season. Undaunted, Hires moved directly into a supporting role in the reboot of action series "MacGyver" (CBS 2016- ).