Eamonn Walker

Eamonn Walker
Eamonn Walker as Kareem Saïd in Oz
Born	Eamonn Roderique Walker (1962-06-12) 12 June 1962 (age 54) London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse(s)	Sandra Walker (?–present)
Awards	CableACE Award – Actor in a Dramatic Series 1997 Oz – Kareem Saïd BFM Film & Television Awards – Best male performance in television 2002 Othello – John Othello

Eamonn Roderique Walker (born 12 June 1962) is a British film, television and theatre actor. In the United States he is known for playing Kareem Saïd in the HBO television series Oz, for which he won a CableACE Award, as Winston in In Sickness and in Health and John Othello in the 2001 ITV1 production of Othello. Since 2012 he has played Firehouse 51 Battalion Chief Wallace Boden on Chicago Fire and its spinoff Chicago P.D.

Walker was born in London to a Grenadian father and a Trinidadian mother, in 1962. Brought up in Islington in London, Walker lived in Trinidad for six months when he was nine years old. He attended Hungerford School in Islington and began studying social work at the University of North London. He trained as a dancer and later joined the Explosive Dance Theatre Company in London. However, an abscess on his calf muscle forced him to give up dancing. He also studied at the New York Film Academy in the United States.

Walker made his professional acting debut in 1983 on stage in London playing an East End punk rocker in the musical Labelled with Love, based partly on the music of the pop band Squeeze. His first television appearance came in 1985 when he appeared in an episode on the second series of Dempsey and Makepeace, which aired on ITV on 19 October 1985. His next television appearance came the following year in an episode of the children's anthology series Dramarama, also on ITV. Also that year, he was cast in the role of Winston, a black, gay, council carer and a thorn in Alf Garnett's side, for series 1–3 of In Sickness and in Health on BBC One. In 1987 he appeared in an episode of Bulman on Granada TV and in 1988 an episode of the ninth series of Tales of the Unexpected. In 1988 he won the role of PC Haynes in The Bill on ITV, a part he played from 1988–89.