Omar Epps Biography

Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. Epps' television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER, and, between 2004 and 2012, Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House.

Personal life

Epps was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced during his childhood and he was raised by his mother, Bonnie Maria Epps, an elementary school principal. He lived in several neighborhoods while growing up (Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Flatbush). Before he started acting, he belonged to a rap group called Wolfpack which he formed with his cousin in 1991. He began writing poetry, short stories and songs at the age of ten and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Epps married Keisha Spivey from the R&B group Total in 2006. They live in California with daughter K'mari Mae (born July 2004) and son Amir (born 25 December 2007). He has a daughter, Aiyanna, from a previous relationship.

Career

Early in Epps's career, he was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his feature film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut Juice. The film is the violent and tragic story of four young men growing up in Harlem.

Epps followed up his performance in Juice as a running back in the college football drama The Program alongside James Caan.

Epps starred in the film "Deadly Voyage" produced by John Goldschmidt for HBO Pictures and BBC Films, and won the best actor award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for portraying Kingsley Ofusu in this true story about African stowaways.

The following year, he switched to baseball as co-star of Major League II, taking over the role of Willie Mays Hayes from originator Wesley Snipes. His next athletic endeavor was playing a track and field star in John Singleton's Higher Learning, a look at the politics and racial tensions of college life.

Epps landed a role on the hit television drama ER for several episodes portraying Dr. Dennis Gant, a troubled surgical intern. After his television work on ER, Epps returned to the big screen in 1997 with a brief turn as a giddy moviegoer on a date with a woman played by Jada Pinkett, who ends up an early victim of a psycho slasher in the blockbuster sequel Scream 2. Also in 1997 Epps was the star of the fact-based HBO movie First Time Felon. He played a small-time criminal who goes through Chicago's boot camp reform system and undertakes a heroic flood rescue, only to then be faced with the adjustment of re-entering society with the mark of ex-con. In 1999 Epps was cast as Linc in The Mod Squad.

While The Mod Squad proved a critical and box-office bust, Epps's later 1999 effort The Wood offered him a serious and multi-dimensional role. Following a group of middle-class African Americans from youth to adulthood, The Wood, the debut effort from director-screenwriter Rick Famuyiwa, co-starred Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs and received a push from co-producers MTV Films that ensured turnout of a sizable youth audience. Also in 1999, Epps was featured alongside Stanley Tucci and LL Cool J, playing an undercover detective who finds himself dangerously caught up in the illegal goings-on he is investigating in In Too Deep. 1999 also saw him lens the 1950s set murder mystery When Willows Touch, with James Earl Jones and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In 2000, Epps starred in Love & Basketball, featuring Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan. He portrayed Quincy, the NBA hopeful who has a stormy relationship with an equally adept female basketball star Monica (Sanaa Lathan). The actor held supporting roles in a series of films, including Dracula 2000, Big Trouble, and the telepic Conviction. In this year he also had a leading role as a gangster in Brother, a movie by acclaimed Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano.

In 2004, Epps landed the role of drug-dealer-turned-prizefighter Luther Shaw, who falls under the tutelage of boxing promoter Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) in the biopic Against the Ropes.

Epps was a character in the video game Def Jam Fight for NY in 2004.

Also in 2004, Epps returned to television medical drama with his role as Dr. Eric Foreman on the US Fox television series House. The role earned him a NAACP Image Award in 2007, 2008 and 2013 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Awards
1989	The Green Flash	Charlie	Short Film
1992	Juice	Q
1993	Daybreak	Hunter	TV
	The Program	Darnell Jefferson
1994	Major League II	Willie Mays Hayes
1995	Higher Learning	Malik Williams
1996	Deadly Voyage	Kingsley Ofosu	TV	Won the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo Silver Nymph Award for Best Actor
	Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood	Malik	Cameo
	ER	Dr. Dennis Gant	TV Series (1996-1997)
1997	First Time Felon	Greg Yance	TV
	Scream 2	Phil Stevens
1998	Blossoms and Veils	Thee
1999	Breakfast of Champions	Wayne Hoobler
	The Mod Squad	Linc
	The Wood	Mike
	In Too Deep	Jeff Cole/J Reid
2000	Love & Basketball	Quincy McCall		Nominated for the Black Reel Award for Best Theatrical Actor Nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance Nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Film Actor Nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Film Chemistry with Sanaa Lathan
	Brother	Denny
	Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000	Marcus
2001	Perfume	J.B.
2002	Big Trouble	FBI Agent Alan Seitz
	Conviction	Carl Upchurch	TV	Nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
2004	Against the Ropes	Luther Shaw
	Alfie	Marlon
	House	Dr. Eric Foreman	TV Series (2004-2012)	Nominated for the 2005 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated for the 2006 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series Won the 2007 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Won the 2008 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated for the 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series Nominated for the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with Lisa Edelstein, Peter Jacobson, Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Kal Penn, Jesse Spencer, and Olivia Wilde Won the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
2009	A Day in the Life	O

Discography

2004: Omar Epps Presents...The Get Back.