Blair Underwood | |
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Underwood in February 2015
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Born |
Blair Erwin Underwood August 25, 1964 Tacoma, Washington, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor, director |
Years active | 1985–present |
Spouse(s) | Desiree DaCosta (m. 1994) |
Children | 3 |
Website | www.blairunderwood.com |
Blair Erwin Underwood (born August 25, 1964) is an American television, film, and stage actor and director. He played headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law for seven years. He has received two Golden Globe Award nominations, three NAACP Image Awards and one Grammy Award. In recent years, he has appeared as Andrew Garner on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The New Adventures of Old Christine, Dirty Sexy Money and In Treatment and was in NBC's The Event.
Underwood was born in Tacoma, Washington, the son of Marilyn Ann Scales, an interior decorator, and Frank Eugene Underwood, Sr., a United States Army colonel. Because of his father's military career, Underwood lived on bases and Army Posts in the United States and Stuttgart, Germany, during his childhood. Blair attended Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia. He went on to attend the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is an honorary member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
After his film debut, Krush Groove, Underwood's 1985 appearance on The Cosby Show landed him a short stint on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live as Bobby Blue, which eventually led to his performance on the TV series L.A. Law, where he appeared from 1987 to 1994. In 1996 he was featured in the July issue of Playgirl. Blair also appeared in the 1987's TV series 21 Jump Street aside a young Johnny Depp on episode "Gotta Finish the Riff."