Jesse L. Martin

At 55 years old, Jesse L. Martin has this physical status:

Jesse Lamont Martin (né Watkins; January 18, 1969) is an American actor and singer.

He is best known for originating the role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and his television roles as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order and Captain Joe West on The Flash.

Early life

Martin, the third of four sons, was born in Rocky Mount, Virginia. His father, Jesse Reed Watkins (1943–2003), was a truck driver, and his mother, Virginia Price, a college counselor. He was born two months premature. His parents divorced when he was a child. His mother eventually remarried and Martin adopted his stepfather's surname.

When Martin was in grade school, the family relocated to Buffalo, New York, but Martin began to dislike speaking because of his Southern accent and was often overcome with shyness. A concerned educator and mentor influenced him to join an after-school drama program and cast him as the pastor in The Golden Goose. Being from Virginia, the young Martin played the character the only way he knew how: as an inspired Southern Baptist preacher. The act was a hit, and Martin emerged from his shell. Martin attended high school at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, where he was voted "Most Talented" in his senior class. He later enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' theatre program, and while at NYU he was also the popular president of Rubin Dorm, the former domain of Mark Twain.

Personal life

In October 2006, Martin returned to Buffalo, New York to work on an independent film (Buffalo Bushido), and was robbed two days after his arrival there.

In 2018, Martin suffered a back injury during the summer, which resulted in his being unable to commit to the fifth season of The Flash. He took a medical leave of absence from the show after recording scenes for a few episodes.

He is a resident of Manhattan.

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Career

Martin toured the states with The Acting Company of John Houseman after graduating. He appeared in Shakespeare's Rock-in-Roles at the Cleveland Playhouse and The Butcher's Daughter, and then returned to Manhattan to perform in local theatre, soap operas, and commercials. Martin waited tables at many restaurants around the city to discover that auditions, regional theater, and bit parts were no way to help himself. He was serving a pizza when his appearance on CBS' Guiding Light aired in the same restaurant as him. As the show finished, the entire waitstaff gathered around the bar television to applaud his accomplishment. He broke out in song during the dinner rush quite often. When he told his customers their dinner checks, he told them to "keep it because someday I'll be famous."

Martin appeared in The Government Inspector with Lainie Kazan on his first appearance in Timon of Athens and later in The Government Inspector. Jonathan Larson, who also worked on the restaurant's employees, was employed at the Moondance Diner. Larson's musical Rent took over the theatre world in 1996, with Martin in the role of LGBT computer geek/philosophy professor Tom Collins. Six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize were among Puccini's 1990s La Bohème's ten awards, along with the Pulitzer Prize. Rent's West End cast members, including Martin, opened in 1998. In the concept album of Bright Lights, Big City, Tad appeared.

Martin returned to the stage in 2010 for one of his finest theater performances since Law & Order, appearing in The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale as part of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. He portrayed Gratiano and King Polixenes, respectively. Both shows were produced in repertory, from previews on June 9, 2010 to the final performance on August 1, 2010.

The Merchant of Venice later moved to the Broadhurst Theater for a limited engagement, in which Martin reprised his role as Gratiano. On October 19, 2010, the show opened on November 7, 2010; on October 19, 2010 it was shown for the first time. Following Al Pacino's pre-existing duties, the show was on hold from January 9, 2011 to February 20, 2011; Martin did not reprise his duties after the hiatus due to other work commitments. On June 18, 2012, he participated in a one-night-only reading benefit of Romeo and Juliet to commemorate the opening of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, alongside Meryl Steffiep, Kevin Kline, Ral Esparza, and others.

Martin appeared in Fox's short-lived 413 Hope St. and Eric Bross' independent film Restaurant (1998). David E. Kelley, Ally McBeal's creator, attended Rent's Broadway premiere and remembers Martin, who was in dire need of a new boyfriend for the title character. David Duchovny, who portrayed Martin as a baseball-playing alien in a 1999 episode of The X-Files titled "The Unnatural," piqued his interest.

Martin, who is still shooting Ally McBeal, was informed by rumors that actor Benjamin Bratt intends to leave the cast of Law & Order. Martin had been out for the show years before and gained a small role in Earl the Hamster's role but decided to wait for a bigger part. Martin met with Law & Order producer Dick Wolf about the opening, considering the possibility. Wolf wanted to cast him, but after finding that CBS and Fox both offered Martin development contracts, he granted him the opportunity to perform without an audition.

He appeared on Law & Order from 1999 to 2008. he was the fifth-longest serving cast member of S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, and Steven Hill, and was his fifth-longest cast member. When he was filming the film version of Rent, in which he reprised Tom Collins' role, he had a brief hiatus at the end of the 2004–2005 season. When Martin's last episode of Law & Order was released by Anthony Anderson, it was on April 23, 2008, when he was replaced by Anthony Anderson. Martin co-stars on The Philanthropist, returning to NBC a year later.

Martin will appear on NBC as Scott Nichols, the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Workshop, on September 14, 2012. As Greg Cooke, Martin appeared in The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, an NBC pilot, but it was not picked up to series.

In the superhero film The Flash, a spin-off from Arrow that premiered in October 2014, Martin now portrays Joe West. Martin played gangster Digsy Foss in Barry and Kara's dreamworld in the third season episode "Duet." Martin had to take medical leave following the season's fourth episode in its fifth season in 2018. He was almost always leaning against a wall or sitting down from the start of the season. Martin returned from medical leave in January 2019 for the season's fifteenth episode. Since being cast in the NBC pilot Irrational, he departed as a series regular after the eighth season, although he is likely to return.

Martin will replace Lenny Kravitz in Sexual Healing, a upcoming biopic directed by Julien Temple and produced by Vassal Benton and Fred Bestall, on March 4, 2013. Martin had been attached to the Marvin Gaye biopic for years and had said that it was his passion to play the legendary Motown singer. Production had halted on the biopic for the first three weeks ahead of a planned nine-and-a-half weeks, mainly due to financial difficulties (crew members were reported to have not been compensated adequately for their service on the film). Approximately 70% of the film had been shot.

Martin narrated the audio book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and On the Shoulder of Giants, Volume 2: Master Intellects and Creative Giants by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Adam Pascal, co-starring Anthony Pascal and two other actors, co-produced Fully Committed with Rent's off-Broadway film.

Martin and Rent co-producer Kevin McCollum are on the board of trustees for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation.

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