Take the BuddyTV Personality Quiz: Which Grey's Anatomy Character Are You? Born on March 26, 1973 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Theodore Raymond "T.R." Knight started acting at the Guthrie Theater when he was five years old. After his high school graduation, Knight studied briefly at the University of Minnesota. When he abandoned his college studies, he went back to the Guthrie Theater and continued with his acting pursuits.
Upon relocating to New York City, Knight performed on Broadway for Michael Frayn's Noises Off. In 2003, he landed the role of Damis in a production of Moliere's Tartuffe. He also did some Off-Broadway shows like This Lime Tree Bower and Scattergood, which earned him a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a play. On television, he also starred as a regular in the show Charlie Lawrence.
A year after he landed the role of George O'Malley in the popular series Grey's Anatomy, Knight announced through a statement in People Magazine, that he, in fact, is homosexual. Knight also expressed his hope that people would not focus so much on his sexuality. A few months after he came out, Knight was involved with a terrible controversy with Grey's Anatomy co-star,
Isaiah Washington . On the Ellen DeGeneres show, Knight told the openly gay comedienne that Washington had made a certain gay slur that was directed at Knight. Furthermore, during the Golden Globe Awards press conference, Washington caused further friction by repeating the same gay slur in front of numerous media people and actors. Although Knight is admittedly upset about the incident, he will continue to star as a heterosexual character alongside Washington in Grey's Anatomy.
On a much lighter side, Knight's impressive work on the hit television series earned him and the rest of the cast a SAG award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2006. The following year, the cast was again nominated for the same category, and this time around, went home with the award in tow.