Blair Underwood Biography

Blair Erwin Underwood (born August 25, 1964) is an American television, film, and stage actor and director. He played headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award nominations, three NAACP Image Awards and 1 Grammy Award. In recent years, he has appeared on The New Adventures of Old Christine, Dirty Sexy Money and In Treatment and was in NBC's The Event.

Early life

Underwood was born in Tacoma, Washington, the son of Marilyn Ann Scales, an interior decorator, and Frank Eugene Underwood, Sr., a United States Army colonel. Because of his father's military career, Underwood lived on bases and Army Posts in the United States and Stuttgart, Germany, during his childhood. Blair attended Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia. He went on to attend the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is an honorary member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Career

After his film debut, Krush Groove, Underwood's 1985 appearance on The Cosby Show landed him a short stint on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live as Bobby Blue, which eventually led to his performance on the TV series L.A. Law, where he appeared from 1987 to 1994. In 1996 he was featured in the July issue of Playgirl.

Underwood broke into film with roles in Just Cause (1995), Set It Off (1996) and Deep Impact (1998). He also had a supporting role as a geneticist in Gattaca. In 2000, he played the lead role in the short-lived television series City of Angels. In 2003, he guest starred in four episodes on the HBO series Sex and the City playing Cynthia Nixon's love interest. In 2004, he played the role of Roger De Souza opposite Heather Locklear in NBC's LAX. He gained acclaim as the sexy grade school teacher in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus for two years. In 2007, he guest starred in an episode of the NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. His latest role is as the recurring character Alex in the HBO series In Treatment.

Underwood has received three NAACP Image Awards, for his film work in Rules of Engagement, and his television work in L.A. Law, City of Angels, Murder in Mississippi and Mama Flora's Family. Underwood was voted one of People 's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2000, and one of TV Guide 's "Most Influential Faces of the 90s". In 2007, Underwood co-authored the novel Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel with husband-and-wife team Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due.

In 2010"2011, Underwood portrayed United States President Elias Martinez in the NBC drama series The Event, which premiered in Fall 2010. Underwood portrayed the role of Saint Mark in The Truth & Life Dramatized audio New Testament Bible, a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, fully dramatized audio New Testament, based on the RSV-CE translation.

He is currently playing the lead role of Stanley in the Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. For the 2013"2014 television season on NBC, Underwood will star in the remake of the successful 1960's television series, Ironside. He will be playing Robert Ironside, the role made famous by the late Raymond Burr.

Personal life

Underwood is a part of several charitable organizations. He won the 1993 Humanitarian Award for his work with the Los Angeles chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2003, along with Ashley Judd, he served as the spokesperson for YouthAIDS. In addition, he is involved with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Blair Underwood Clinic in Washington, DC.

Underwood also appeared in a 2004 public service announcement for The Fulfillment Fund. He is a Trustee for the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, a non-profit theatre group founded by Danny Glover, focusing on plays about the Black experience.

He supported President Barack Obama's candidacy and spoke at campaign rallies for Obama. Underwood got to know Obama while researching his L.A. Law role at Harvard Law School, while Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review.

Underwood's DNA test showed that he is a descendant of the Babungo people of Cameroon. Additional DNA testing and genealogical research revealed that his African ancestry comes from the Bamum, Brong and lgbo ethnic groups of Western Africa. The DNA test also connected Blair to a distant cousin in Babungo, Cameroon.

On September 17, 1994, he married Desiree DaCosta, with whom he has three children, Paris, Brielle, and Blake.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1985	Krush Groove	Russell Walker
1992	'	Jesus	Also director
1993	Posse	Carver
1995	Just Cause	Bobby Earl
1996	Mistrial	Lieutenant C. Hodges
1996	Set It Off	Keith Weston
1997	Gattaca	Geneticist
1998	Asunder	Chance Williams
1998	Deep Impact	Mark Simon
1999	'	Magic Man
2000	Rules of Engagement	Capt. Lee
2002	Truth Be Told	Det. Harris
2002	G	Chip Hightower
2002	Full Frontal	Nicholas/Calvin
2003	Malibu's Most Wanted	Tom Gibbons
2004	Fronterz	(unknown role)
2004	Do Geese See God?	Man
2005	Straight Out of Compton 2	Hen	Also producer
2005	'	Gregory Fletcher/The Golden Blaze	Animated
2006	Something New	Mark Harper
2006	Madea's Family Reunion	Carlos
2007	Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience	Voice role
2007	'	Hen
2009	The Bridge to Nowhere	Director
2011	'	Principal Bill Martinson
2011	I Will Follow	Unknown
2012	Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day	David Ames
2012	'	Principal Bramble	Soon Releasing

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Knight Rider	Potts
1985	'	Robert (Denise's Friend)	Uncredited
1985	'	Mark
1985"86	One Life to Live	Bobby Blue
1986"87	Downtown	Terry Corsaro
1987	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Stillman
1987	21 Jump Street	Reginald Brooks
1987"94	L.A. Law	Jonathan Rollins
1988	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Jonathan Rollins	Television special
1989	'	Horace Bouchet	Television film
1990	Murder in Mississippi	James Chaney	Television film
1990	Heat Wave	Robert Richardson	Television film
1991	'	Zelmer Collier
1993	Story of a People	Host	Miniseries
1993	Father & Son: Dangerous Relations	Jared Williams	Television film; also associate producer
1996	Soul of the Game	Jackie Robinson	Television film
1996"97	High Incident	Michael Rhoades
1998	Mama Flora's Family	Willie	Miniseries
2000	City of Angels	Dr. Ben Turner
2003"04	Sex and the City	Dr. Robert Leeds
2004"05	Fatherhood	Dr. Arthur Bindlebeep	Animated
2004"05	LAX	Roger De Souza
2006	Covert One: The Hades Factor	Palmer Addison	Miniseries
2006"08	'	Mr. Harris
2007	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Miles Sennett
2007	Dirty Sexy Money	Simon Elder
2008	In Treatment	Alex	HBO series
2010"11	'	President Elias Martinez	Main cast
2013	Ironside	Robert Ironside	Main cast

Video games

• The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon " Hunter

Bibliography

• Before I Got Here: The Wondrous Things We Hear When We Listen to the Souls of Our Children (2005; editor, with Donyell Kennedy-McCullough (photographer))
• The Tennyson Hardwick Novels:
  • Casanegra (2007; with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes)
  • In the Night of the Heat (2008; with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes)
  • From Cape Town with Love (2010; with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes)
  • South by Southeast (scheduled for September 2012; with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes)

Awards/nominations

• Golden Globes
  • 2009, Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series or Mini-Series or Television Special: In Treatment (Nominated)
  • 1991, Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series or Mini-Series or Television Special: L.A. Law (Nominated)

• Grammy Awards
  • 2009, Best Spoken Word Album: An Inconvenient Truth (Winner)

• Image Awards
  • 2011, Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series: The Event (Nominated)
  • 2009, Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series: In Treatment (Nominated)
  • 2009, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Dirty, Sexy, Money (Nominated)
  • 2009, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: The New Adventures of Old Christine (Nominated)
  • 2008, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Dirty, Sexy, Money (Nominated)
  • 2008, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: The New Adventures of Old Christine (Nominated)
  • 2005, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Sex & the City (Nominated)
  • 2004, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Sex & the City (Nominated)
  • 2001, Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series: City of Angels (Winner)
  • 2001, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: Rules of Engagement (Winner)
  • 1999, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Mamma's Flora's Family (Winner)
  • 1997, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Soul of the Game (Nominated)
  • 1997, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: Set It Off (Nominated)