Jesse L. Martin

His father, Jesse Reed Watkins (1943–2003), was a truck driver, and his mother, Virginia Price, a college counselor.

He was born two months premature.

His parents divorced when he was a child.

His mother eventually remarried and Martin adopted his stepfather's surname.

When Martin was in grade school, the family relocated to Buffalo, New York, but Martin began to dislike speaking because of his Southern accent and was often overcome with shyness.

A concerned educator and mentor influenced him to join an after-school drama program and cast him as the pastor in The Golden Goose.

Being from Virginia, the Young Martin played the character the only way he knew how: as an inspired Southern Baptist preacher.

The act was a hit, and Martin emerged from his shell.

Martin attended high school at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts.

He later enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' theatre program.

After graduation, Martin toured the states with John Houseman's The Acting Company.

He appeared in Shakespeare's Rock-in-Roles at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Butcher's Daughter at the Cleveland Play House, and returned to Manhattan to perform in local theatre, soap operas, and commercials.

Finding that auditions, regional theater, and bit parts were no way to support himself, Martin waited tables at several restaurants around the city.

He was serving a pizza when his appearance on CBS's Guiding Light aired in the same eatery.

While the show aired, the whole waitstaff gathered around the bar television to cheer his performance.

Martin made his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, and then performed in The Government Inspector with Lainie Kazan.

While employed at the Moondance Diner, he met the playwright Jonathan Larson, who also worked on the restaurant's staff.

Jesse Lamont Martin (né Watkins; January 18, 1969) is an American actor and singer.

He is best known for his role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and performed on television as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order, Captain Joe West on The Flash, and professor Alec Mercer on The Irrational.

Martin, the third of four sons, was born on January 18, 1969 in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

The 1990s update of Puccini's La Bohème earned six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1996, Larson's musical Rent took the theatre world by storm, with Martin in the role of gay computer geek/philosophy professor Tom Collins.

In 1998, the West End production of Rent opened with four of the original cast members, including Martin.

He played Tad in the concept album of Bright Lights, Big City.

Martin landed roles on Fox's short-lived 413 Hope St. and Eric Bross's independent film Restaurant (1998).

Ally McBeals creator, David E. Kelley, attended Rents Broadway premiere and remembered Martin when the show needed a new boyfriend for the title character.

His performance as Dr. Greg Butters on Ally McBeal caught the attention of David Duchovny, who cast Martin as a baseball-playing alien in a 1999 episode of The X-Files titled "The Unnatural" that Duchovny wrote and directed.

While still shooting Ally McBeal, Martin heard rumors that actor Benjamin Bratt planned to leave the cast of Law & Order.

Martin had tried out for the show years before and won the minor role of a car-radio thief named Earl the Hamster, but decided to wait for a bigger part.

With the opportunity presenting itself, Martin approached Law & Order producer Dick Wolf regarding the opening.

Wolf hoped to cast him, and upon hearing that CBS and Fox both offered Martin development deals, he gave the actor the part without an audition.

From 1999 to 2008, he starred as Detective Edward "Ed" Green on Law & Order.

Altogether, he was the fifth-longest serving cast member behind S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, and Steven Hill.

In 2010, Martin returned to the stage for one of his biggest theater commitments since Law & Order, performing in the productions of The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale as a part of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

He played the roles of Gratiano and King Polixenes, respectively.

The two shows were performed in repertory, beginning with previews on June 9, 2010, through to the final performance on August 1, 2010.

The Merchant of Venice later transferred to Broadway to the Broadhurst Theater for a limited engagement, in which Martin reprised his role as Gratiano.

The show began previews on October 19, 2010, and officially opened on November 7.

The show began a hiatus on January 9 to accommodate Al Pacino's pre-existing obligations, and resumed from February 1, 2011, to February 20, 2011; Martin did not reprise his role after the hiatus due to other work commitments.

He took part in a one-night-only reading benefit of Romeo and Juliet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, alongside Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Raúl Esparza, and others on June 18, 2012.