Jesse L. Martin

Jesse Lamont Martin, born Jesse Lamont Watkins on January 18, 1969, in Rocky Mount, Virginia, is an American actor and singer whose career has spanned Broadway, television, and film. The third of four sons, Martin was born two months premature to Jesse Reed Watkins, a truck driver, and Virginia Price, a college counselor. His parents divorced during his childhood, and his mother later remarried; Martin subsequently adopted his stepfather's surname. When he was in grade school, the family moved to Buffalo, New York, where his Southern accent made him reluctant to speak and contributed to persistent shyness. A mentor at school encouraged him to join an after-school drama program and cast him as a pastor in The Golden Goose, a role Martin interpreted as a Southern Baptist preacher. The performance was well received and helped him overcome his reticence. He went on to attend the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts before enrolling in the theatre program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Following graduation, Martin toured with John Houseman's The Acting Company and appeared in Shakespeare's Rock-in-Roles at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Butcher's Daughter at the Cleveland Play House. Back in New York City, he pursued local theatre, soap operas, and commercials, including an appearance on CBS's Guiding Light, while supporting himself by waiting tables at several restaurants. He made his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, a credit that appears in his verified stage record, and subsequently appeared in The Government Inspector — listed in the database as The Inspector General — alongside Lainie Kazan. While working at the Moondance Diner, Martin met playwright Jonathan Larson, who was also on the restaurant's staff.

That connection proved pivotal. When Larson's musical Rent opened in 1996, Martin originated the role of Tom Collins, a gay computer scientist and philosophy professor. The show, a contemporary adaptation of Puccini's La Bohème, earned four Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1998, the West End production opened with Martin among the four original cast members who reprised their roles. His portrayal of Collins remained one of his most recognized stage performances. Martin also played Tad in the concept album of Bright Lights, Big City.

In 2010, Martin returned to the stage as part of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, performing in two productions presented in repertory. He played Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice and King Polixenes in The Winter's Tale, with previews beginning June 9 and the final performance on August 1, 2010. The Merchant of Venice subsequently transferred to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theater, where Martin reprised the role of Gratiano. Previews began October 19, 2010, and the production officially opened November 7. The show entered a hiatus on January 9 to accommodate Al Pacino's prior commitments and resumed February 1, 2011, running through February 20; Martin did not return after the hiatus due to other work obligations. On June 18, 2012, he participated in a one-night benefit reading of Romeo and Juliet marking the 50th anniversary of the Delacorte Theater, alongside Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Raúl Esparza, among others.

Martin's television career gained significant momentum when Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley, having attended the Broadway premiere of Rent, cast him as Dr. Greg Butters on that series. His work there caught the attention of David Duchovny, who cast Martin as a baseball-playing alien in the 1999 X-Files episode "The Unnatural," which Duchovny wrote and directed. Having previously auditioned for Law & Order and received only the minor role of a car-radio thief named Earl the Hamster, Martin approached producer Dick Wolf when actor Benjamin Bratt was rumored to be leaving the cast. Wolf, aware that CBS and Fox had both extended development deals to Martin, offered him the part without an audition. From 1999 to 2008, Martin starred as Detective Edward "Ed" Green on Law & Order, becoming the fifth-longest-serving cast member behind S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, and Steven Hill. He took a brief hiatus during the 2004–2005 season to film the movie adaptation of Rent, reprising his role as Tom Collins. His final episode aired April 23, 2008.

Subsequent television work included a co-starring role in NBC's The Philanthropist and a nine-episode arc in season two of Smash, in which he played Scott Nichols, the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Workshop. Beginning in 2014, Martin played Captain Joe West in The Flash, a superhero series that spun off from Arrow. A back injury during the summer of 2018 required him to take medical leave after the fifth season's fourth episode; he returned in January 2019 with the fifteenth episode of that season. He departed as a series regular after the eighth season and subsequently joined the NBC series The Irrational, in which he stars as professor Alec Mercer.

In film, Martin was announced in March 2013 as the replacement for Lenny Kravitz in Sexual Healing, a biopic about Marvin Gaye directed by Julien Temple. Production halted approximately three weeks into a planned nine-and-a-half-week shoot, with roughly seventy percent of the film completed, primarily due to financial difficulties. Beyond performance, Martin narrated the audiobooks The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and On the Shoulder of Giants, Volume 2: Master Intellects and Creative Giants by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and co-produced the off-Broadway production of Fully Committed alongside Rent co-star Adam Pascal and two other producers. He also serves on the board of trustees for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation.