Eriq La Salle

Eriq La Salle, born Erik Ki La Salle on July 23, 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut, is an American actor, director, writer, and producer. One of four children, he was raised by his mother, Ada Haynes, and attended Weaver High School and the Artists Collective, Inc. in Hartford. He studied at the Juilliard School's Drama Division for two years as a member of Group 13, enrolling between 1980 and 1984, before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Graduate Acting Program in 1984.

Upon graduating from NYU, La Salle was cast in Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry V. He subsequently built a stage career that included Broadway, off-Broadway, and daytime television work. His Broadway appearance came in 1987, when he performed in Death and the King's Horseman. During this period he also appeared on the daytime drama One Life to Live, playing reporter Mike Rivers.

In 1988, La Salle co-starred as Darryl Jenks in the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America. His most prominent screen role came in 1994, when NBC's medical drama ER premiered with La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton, a part he held through the show's eighth season. The performance earned him three NAACP Image Awards and brought nominations for a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards. During the show's fourth season, La Salle publicly requested that a storyline depicting an interracial relationship between his character and Alex Kingston's Dr. Elizabeth Corday be written out, citing concerns about the messages such a portrayal sent regarding African-American relationships. He later returned to ER for three episodes during its fifteenth and final season, including an uncredited appearance in which he informed viewers of the death of series creator Michael Crichton, and he also directed one episode during that final season.

La Salle made a cameo as Slick Will, a mechanic, in the 2003 film Biker Boyz, and played a Jamaican gangster in the independent film Johnny Was, opposite Vinnie Jones, Samantha Mumba, Lennox Lewis, and Roger Daltrey, spending four weeks in Belfast during production. He starred in the Hallmark Channel film Relative Stranger, which premiered on March 14, 2009, alongside Cicely Tyson and former ER castmates Michael Michele and Michael Beach. In 2010, he played the United Nations Secretary General in the series finale of 24 and guest-starred in an episode of Covert Affairs. The following year he took on two recurring television roles: a Caribbean community leader in HBO's How to Make It in America and neuropsychiatrist E-Mo in CBS's A Gifted Man. He co-starred as Will Munson in the 2017 superhero film Logan.

La Salle launched his directing career in 1996 with the HBO television movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault, which starred Don Cheadle, James Earl Jones, and Forest Whitaker. He subsequently directed the pilot for Showtime's Soul Food: The Series. In 2002, he produced the feature film The Salton Sea and also produced, directed, and starred in Crazy as Hell. The following year he wrote, directed, and starred in "Memphis," an episode of The Twilight Zone. His directing credits across television include multiple episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CSI: NY, Ringer, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Chicago P.D., Lucifer, Murder in the First, and the 2012 Hallmark Channel film Playing Father. He both acted in and directed episodes of CSI: Cyber, and appeared in Under the Dome's third season after directing an episode in its second season. He also appeared in The Night Shift and Madam Secretary.

As a writer, La Salle published his debut novel, Laws of Depravity, in 2012, followed by Laws of Wrath in 2014 and Laws of Annihilation in 2023. He also authored the comic book series 25 to Life, published in three issues by 12-Gauge Comics in 2010.