Eriq La Salle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eriq La Salle (born July 23, 1962 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American actor and director, best known for his portrayals of Darryl in the 1988 comedy film Coming to America and Dr. Peter Benton during the first eight seasons of the NBC drama series ER.

Eriq La Salle directed & starred in the movie Crazy As Hell.

He has also performed in movies such as One Hour Photo and has also directed for Soul Food: The Series on Showtime. Most recently La Salle was seen playing a Jamaican gangster in the acclaimed independent film Johnny Was[1] opposite Vinnie Jones, Samantha Mumba, Lennox Lewis, and Roger Daltrey. La Salle lived in Belfast for four weeks filming the movie, which he supported recently at the North American premiere of the film, at the American Black Film Festival in Miami.

He has recently directed and made a cameo in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

[edit] Early life

Eriq La Salle was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut as one of four children.

[edit] Career

La Salle received a BFA in theater arts from New York University's graduate theater program in 1984, after studying for two years at Juilliard. Just before his graduation he was cast in the first of several productions for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park theater company. Soon after he found continuous acting work on Broadway, off-Broadway and in the daytime TV drama One Life to Live as reporter Mike Rivers.