| Full Name: | Omar Epps - Contact Omar Epps |
| Birth Name: | Omar Hashim Epps |
| Famous As: | Actor, musician |
| Date of Birth: | July 23, 1973 |
| Place of Birth: | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Height: | 5' 10? |
| Nationality: | American |
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Omar Epps
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| Omar Epps | |
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| Born | Omar Hashim Epps July 20, 1973 Brooklyn, New York |
| Spouse(s) | Keisha Epps(2006-present) |
Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor and musician. He is famous for his movies Juice, Higher Learning, Love and Basketball, In Too Deep, and The Wood. He had a small role in Scream 2 and was a recurring character (Dr. Dennis Gant) on the US drama series ER.
Since 2004, he has played the role of Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House.
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Epps was born in Brooklyn, New York to a single mother who was a school principal1 and lived in several neighborhoods while growing up (Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Flatbush).2 Before he started acting, he belonged to a rap group called Wolfpack which he formed with his cousin in 1991. He began writing screenplays at the age of ten and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
Epps has a daughter Aiyanna from a previous relationship.34 He and Keisha Spivey married in 2006. They live in California with daughter K'mari (born in July 2004) and son Amir (born on 25 December 2007).
Early in Epps's career, he was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut Juice. The film is the violent and tragic story of four young men growing up in Harlem. Epps followed up his performance in Juice as a running back in the college football drama The Program alongside James Caan.
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 landed a role on the hit television drama ER for several episodes portraying Dr. Dennis Gant, a troubled surgical intern. After his television work on ER, Epps returned to the big screen in 1997 with a brief turn as a giddy moviegoer on a date with a woman played by Jada Pinkett, who ends up an early victim of a psycho slasher in the blockbuster sequel Scream 2. Also in 1997 Epps was the star of the fact-based HBO movie First Time Felon, a movie he produced. Epps 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. The feature adaptation of the dated TV series had Epps in attractive but uncomfortable and decidedly unfashionable tight pants, a subject frequently raised by the actor in interviews promoting the film.
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 Fumuyiwa, co-starred Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs and received a push from co-producers MTV Films that ensured turnout of a sizable youth audience. Also in 1999, Epps was featured alongside Stanley Tucci and LL Cool J, playing an undercover detective who finds himself dangerously 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 and Basketball, featuring Alfre Woodard & Sanaa Lathan. He portrayed Quincy, the NBA hopeful who has a stormy relationship with an equally adept female basketball star Monica (Sanaa Lathan). The actor held supporting roles in a series of films including Dracula 2000, Big Trouble, and the telepic Conviction. 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 US FOX television series House. The role earned him a NAACP Image Award in 2007 and 2008 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Juice | Quincy 'Q' Powell |
| 1993 | Daybreak | Hunter |
| The Program | Darnell Jefferson | |
| 1994 | Major League II | Willie Mays Hayes |
| 1995 | Higher Learning | Malik Williams |
| 1996 | Deadly Voyage | Kingsley Ofusu |
| Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood | Malik | |
| ER (TV series) (1996 - 1997) | Dr. Dennis Gant | |
| 1997 | First Time Felon | Greg Yance |
| Scream 2 | Phil Stevens | |
| 1998 | Blossoms and Veils | Thee |
| 1999 | In Too Deep | Jeff Cole—J Reid |
| The Wood | Mike | |
| The Mod Squad | Linc Hayes | |
| Breakfast of Champions | Wayne Hoobler | |
| 2000 | Brother | Denny |
| Love & Basketball | Quincy McCall | |
| Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 | Marcus | |
| 2001 | Perfume | J. B. |
| 2002 | Big Trouble | Seitz |
| Conviction | Carl Upchurch | |
| 2004 | House (TV series) (2004 - present) | Dr. Eric Foreman |
| Against the Ropes | Luther Shaw | |
| Alfie | Marlon | |
| 2009 | A Day in the Life | O |
2004: Omar Epps Presents...The Get Back5
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