Omar Epps

Omar Epps
Omar Epps.jpg
Epps in September 2008
Born
Omar Hashim Epps

(1973-07-20) July 20, 1973 (age 49)
OccupationActor, rapper, producer
Years active1988–present
Spouse
Keisha Epps
(m. 2006)
Children3

Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, and producer. He has been awarded nine NAACP Image Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, one MTV Movie Award, one Black Reel Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Epps's film roles include Juice, Higher Learning, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love & Basketball. His television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the medical drama series ER, J. Martin Bellamy in Resurrection, Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House from 2004 to 2012, and Isaac Johnson in the TV series Shooter from 2016 to 2018.

Early life

Omar Epps was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced during his childhood and he was raised by his mother, Bonnie Maria Epps, an elementary school principal. He lived in several Brooklyn neighborhoods while growing up (Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York, and East Flatbush). Before he started acting, he belonged to a rap group called Wolfpack, which he formed with his cousin in 1991. He began writing poetry, short stories, and songs at the age of ten and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Career

Early in his career, Epps was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his feature film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut Juice. Epps followed up his performance in Juice as a DJ, by later playing a running back in the college football drama The Program alongside James Caan. Epps starred in the film Deadly Voyage, and won the best actor award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for portraying Kingsley Ofusu in this true story about African stowaways. The following year, he switched to baseball as co-star of Major League II, taking over the role of Willie Mays Hayes from originator Wesley Snipes. His next athletic endeavor was playing a track and field star in John Singleton's Higher Learning, a look at the politics and racial tensions of college life.

Epps at the Paley Center for Media, Beverly Hills, California, on June 17, 2009

Epps played Dr. Dennis Gant, a troubled surgical intern, on television drama ER for several episodes. After his television work on ER, Epps returned to film in 1997 with a role as a giddy moviegoer, on a date with a woman played by Jada Pinkett Smith, who ends up an early victim of a psychopathic slasher in the blockbuster sequel Scream 2. Also in 1997, Epps was the star of the fact-based HBO movie First Time Felon. He played a small-time criminal who goes through Chicago's boot camp reform system and undertakes a heroic flood rescue, only to then be faced with the adjustment of re-entering society with the mark of ex-con. In 1999 Epps was cast as Linc in The Mod Squad. While The Mod Squad proved a critical and box-office bust, Epps's later 1999 effort The Wood offered him a serious and multi-dimensional role. Following a group of middle-class African Americans from youth to adulthood, The Wood, the debut effort from director-screenwriter Rick Famuyiwa, co-starred Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs. Also in 1999, Epps was featured alongside Stanley Tucci and LL Cool J, playing an undercover detective who finds himself caught up in the illegal goings-on he is investigating in In Too Deep. 1999 also saw him lens the 1950s set murder mystery When Willows Touch, with James Earl Jones and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In 2000, Epps starred in Love & Basketball, featuring Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan. He portrayed Quincy, the NBA hopeful who has a stormy relationship with an equally adept female basketball star Monica, played by Lathan. Epps also had supporting roles in a series of films, including Dracula 2000, Big Trouble, and the telepic Conviction. He also had a leading role as a gangster in Brother, a movie by Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano.

In 2004, Epps landed the role of drug-dealer-turned-prizefighter Luther Shaw, who falls under the tutelage of boxing promoter Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) in the biopic Against the Ropes. Epps was a character in the video game Def Jam Fight for NY in 2004.

Also in 2004, Epps returned to television medical drama with his role as Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox television series House. The role earned him a NAACP Image Award in 2007, 2008 and 2013 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.[citation needed] In 2014, Epps took on the role of agent J. Martin Bellamy in the ABC television series, Resurrection. The series focuses on a number of individuals who return from the dead, and change the lives of their families and friends in Arcadia, Missouri.

In July 2020, Epps starred in the Netflix psychological thriller Fatal Affair.

Personal life

Epps married singer Keisha Spivey, from the R&B group Total, in 2006. They have two children, daughter K'mari Mae and son Amir. He also has a daughter, Aiyanna, from a previous relationship.

He is fluent in Spanish and French.[citation needed]

Epps and actor/comedian Marlon Wayans are longtime friends and high school classmates at LaGuardia High, both graduating in 1990. The 1997−1999 theme song used for the sitcom The Wayans Brothers was co-produced by Epps, with Marlon and Shawn Wayans.

In a 2018 interview, Epps denied the long-standing rumor that he is related to fellow actor Mike Epps, saying, "Me and Mike Epps ain't related, though, we spoke like, 'Where you from? Where you from?'"

Epps authored an autobiographical book titled From Fatherless to Fatherhood that was released by Lulu Publishing in June 2018.

Epps serves on the Cultural Council of RepresentUs, a nonprofit organization that focuses on passing anti-corruption laws in the United States. In June 2020, he narrated an educational video for the organization about America's criminal justice system.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1988 The Green Flash Charlie Short film
1992 Juice Q
1993 Daybreak Hunter
1993 The Program Darnell Jefferson
1994 Major League II Willie Mays Hayes
1995 Higher Learning Malik Williams
1996 Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Malik Cameo
1997 Scream 2 Phil Stevens
1997 First Time Felon Greg Yance
1998 Blossoms and Veils Thee
1999 Breakfast of Champions Wayne Hoobler
1999 The Mod Squad Linc
1999 The Wood Mike
1999 In Too Deep Jeff Cole / J Reid
2000 Love & Basketball Quincy McCall Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Theatrical Actor
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance
Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Film Actor
Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Film Chemistry with Sanaa Lathan
2000 Brother Denny
2000 Dracula 2000 Marcus
2001 Perfume JB
2002 Big Trouble FBI Agent Alan Seitz
2004 Against the Ropes Luther Shaw
2004 Alfie Marlon
2009 A Day in the Life O
2016 Almost Christmas Malachi
2018 Traffik John
2019 Trick Det. Mike Denver
2019 3022 John Laine
2020 Fatal Affair David Hammond
2022 The Devil You Know Marcus Cowans

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1993 Here and Now Curtis
1993 Street Justice Clint Episode: "Black or Blue"
1996 Deadly Voyage Kingsley Ofosu Television film
Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo Silver Nymph Award for Best Actor
Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
1996–1997 ER Dr. Dennis Gant
2002 Conviction Carl Upchurch Television film
Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
2004–2012 House Dr. Eric Foreman 2007 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
2008 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Nominated – 2005 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Nominated – 2006 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
Nominated – 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
Nominated – 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2014–2015 Resurrection Immigration and Customs Agent J. Martin "Marty" Bellamy Nominated – 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
2016–2018 Shooter Captain Isaac Johnson Main role
2019–2020 This Is Us Darnell Hodges Recurring role (Season 4)
2021–present Power Book III: Raising Kanan Detective Malcolm Howard Main cast

Discography

  • Omar Epps Presents... The Get Back (2004)

This page was last updated at 2022-10-07 02:51 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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