American actor Adrian Pasdar was born on April 30, 1965 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He studied at the University of Florida with a football scholarship, but was badly injured in a car accident during his freshman year, which kept him off the field, and forced him to finish his year while undergoing intensive physical therapy. He turned his attention to campus stage productions and rediscovered an early interest in acting and writing. No longer able to play football, he left school and joined the People’s Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where he worked as part of the construction crew. An accident on the set led to the tip of his left thumb being cut off; the resulting medical compensation was spent on acting lessons at the Lee Strasberg Technical Institute in New York.
Pasdar got his big film break at age 19, when he auditioned for a role on Top Gun. The film’s director, Tony Scott, was so impressed that he wrote the part of Chipper especially for him. This led to roles in other films such as Solarbabies, Streets of Gold, Near Dark and Vital Signs, and eventually, his biggest break in movies, the 1992 film Just Like a Woman, where he plays a transvestite opposite Julie Walters. He then took a break from acting, moving back to New York and taking the occasional small part.
In 1996, Pasdar broke out to television, when he played the lead character—an unethical executive of a multinational corporation—in the short-lived series Profit. His next major television role was in the cult science fiction series Mysterious Ways, where he played the lead character, anthropology professor Declan Dunn. He also played ADA David McClaren in the last two seasons of Judging Amy. His guest roles on television include bits for Touched by an Angel, The Twilight Zone and as the lawyer of Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria-Parker) on Desperate Housewives.
His biggest role on television so far is as Nathan Petrelli on the hit series Heroes—the ambitious and pragmatic congressman with the power of self-controlled flight. Despite the success of his television career, he hasn’t turned his back on films: recent credits include The Big Day, Secondhand Lions and Home Movie. He has also turned to directing, working behind-the-scenes on the 1999 art film Cement, which won him an award on the following year’s Houston International Film Festival.
Exclusive Video Interview with Adrian Pasdar on the Set of 'Heroes'