Omar Epps biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actor. Omar Hashim Epps was born on July 20, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York. An only child, he was raised by his mother, Bonnie Epps, a lifelong educator who advanced from teacher to principal to school superintendent. Epps proved a multi-talented child whose first love was writing. "I've been writing since I was a kid," he says. "Short stories, poetry, and all of that, and acting is just an extension of that. It just came naturally." Epps attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, where he studied theatre. In addition to writing and acting, Epps also excelled in music and dance. At age 17, he toured briefly with Queen Latifah as a backup singer and dancer, and a year later, in 1991, he formed a rap group called Wolfpack.

Early Films

In 1992, shortly after graduating from high school, Epps landed a starring role opposite the late hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur in the film Juice, a tragic and violent story about four young men growing up in Harlem. A year later, Epps was cast as a star running back in the college football movie The Program. From that time on, despite standing only 5-foot 10-inches and preferring the arts to sports in real life, Epps was frequently typecast in athlete roles. He played baseball star Willie Mays Hays in Major League II (1994) and turned in a well-reviewed performance as a collegiate track star Higher Learning (1995). "It was always sort of a mystery to me," Epps says, "why I was always cast as some athlete."

Breakthrough Role

Epps gained the attention of a huge national audience when he joined the cast of NBC's popular medical drama ER for the 1996-97 season. Epps portrayed Dr. Dennis Gant, a surgical resident overwhelmed by the pressures of the emergency room. In one of the show's most intense scenes ever, Dr. Gant tragically dies after either jumping or falling onto train tracks. Epps credits his role on ER with helping him break through to national fame. "They had 40 million viewers," he said. "People started putting the name with the face."

Career Highlights

After leaving ER, Epps returned to the big screen with a small but memorable role as a murder victim in the 1997 blockbuster sequel Scream 2. Epps' career then rocketed into high gear as he starred in four different films in 1999 alone: Breakfast of Champions, The Mod Squad, The Wood and In Too Deep. Again playing an athlete, Epps then turned in one of his most noted performances as an aspiring basketball player in Love & Basketball (2000). He also starred opposite Meg Ryan as a boxer in the 2004 film Against the Ropes.