Born August 25, 1964 in Tacoma, Washington, TV and film actor Blair Underwood is a child of an interior decorator mother and a United States Army colonel. He lived in military bases located in the U.S. and in Germany during his childhood days. He attended Petersburg High School in Virginia then enrolled in musical theater at the Carnegie Mellon School located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Underwood is an honorary member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
He moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and on his second day in the new place, he was able to land a role on The Cosby Show. He has since then appeared on other TV shows including One Life to Live , Sex & the City , Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Murder in Mississippi to name a few. His other roles are as Simon Elder on the drama series Dirty Sexy Money and as Mr. Harris on the sitcom The New Adventure of Old Christine. His performance as attorney Jonathan Rollins on L.A. Law earned him a Golden Globe nomination as well. At the Image Awards, he won two outstanding actor awards for his roles as Dr Ben Turner on City of Angels and as Willie on Mama Flora's Family. He was also awarded Outstanding Support Actor for his role as Capt. Lee in the film Rules of Engagement.
His big screen debut was in Krush Groove, at which time he was already 21 years old. His other film works include Gattaca, Deep Impact, The Wishing Tree, Full Frontal and Weather Girl. In 1992, he directed, produced, co-wrote and starred on The Second Coming, a 30-minute film that showed Jesus Christ as a man of color upon his return on Earth.
In 2000, he was listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine. TV Guide also named him as one of the Most Influential Faces of the 90's. Underwood appeared in a TV commercial for Burger King and Nationwide Insurance. He was also seen in the music video of the song “Liberian Girl” by Michael Jackson. He is married to Desiree DaCosta and has three children namely Paris, Blake and Brielle. In 2008, he joined the cast of the HBO Drama In Treatment. His role is that of Alex, a navy pilot with high standards whose his near-death experience and a disastrous mission in Iraq pushed him to attend Paul's sessions.
Underwood has also done voice work, such as that in the video game The Legend of Spyro: The Dawn of the Dragon and on the video The Golden Blaze.
(Photo courtesy of HBO)