Mekhi Phifer

Mekhi Phifer is an American actor born on December 29, 1974, in Harlem, New York City, where he was raised by his mother, Rhoda Phifer, a high school teacher. He made his Broadway debut in 2011, appearing in Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly.

Phifer's screen career began in 1994 when, at age 19 and while enrolled at Columbia University studying electrical engineering, he auditioned for director Spike Lee's Clockers. Competing against more than a thousand candidates at an open casting call, he secured the lead role as a narcotics dealer caught up in a murder cover-up. He subsequently appeared in the comedy spoof High School High alongside his former wife, actress Malinda Williams, and co-starred in the horror film I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which featured Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. Additional film credits from this period include Soul Food, Hell's Kitchen NYC, and the thriller Uninvited Guest, in which he played a character named Silk. He also appeared in O, portraying the titular character Odin, and in Impostor.

In 2001, Phifer starred opposite Beyoncé Knowles in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, an MTV film reimagining the Carmen legend. The following year brought two significant projects: Paid in Full, in which he portrayed a character named Mitch, and 8 Mile, director Curtis Hanson's feature film starring Eminem, in which Phifer had a co-starring role. He is referenced by name in Eminem's Grammy and Academy Award-winning song "Lose Yourself," which accompanied that film. Also in 2002, Phifer earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance in the television film A Lesson Before Dying, opposite Don Cheadle. He received two additional NAACP Image Award nominations during his tenure on the NBC medical drama ER, where he portrayed Dr. Gregory Pratt from April 2002 through September 2008. His character's death was depicted in the Season 15 premiere, resolving a Season 14 finale cliffhanger involving an ambulance explosion connected to an injured FBI informant played by Steve Buscemi.

Earlier television work included the HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen in 1995, Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground in 1997, recurring appearances in the fifth and sixth seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street as Junior Bunk, and a guest role on New York Undercover. In 2009, he began a guest arc on the Fox drama Lie to Me. From July to October 2011, Phifer played CIA officer Rex Matheson in Torchwood: Miracle Day, the fourth series of the BBC and Starz co-production, appearing alongside John Barrowman and Eve Myles. Later that year, in December 2011, he made his Broadway appearance in Stick Fly. He subsequently portrayed Agent Collins in the fourth season of White Collar, joined the Showtime drama House of Lies as a recurring cast member in its third season in 2013, and became a series regular on the television show Frequency in fall 2016. In 2024, he starred in the action film Long Gone Heroes alongside Frank Grillo and Andy Garcia.

Phifer has appeared in several music videos, including "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica in 1998 and "Lose Yourself" by Eminem in 2002. In January 2011, he founded Third Reel Films, a company established to connect filmmakers with entertainment representatives, acquisition executives, and other industry professionals. He serves as chairman of the board of trustees of The Vine Group USA, a nonprofit organization founded in 2000 to provide educational resources to universities in Africa, and owns several Athlete's Foot athletic shoe-store franchises in California. Phifer has a son with Malinda Williams and a second son, born in 2007, with Oni Souratha. On March 30, 2013, he married Reshelet Barnes in Beverly Hills, California.