Edi Gathegi

Edi Gathegi

Gathegi in January 2009
Born Edi Mue Gathegi[1]
(1979-03-10) March 10, 1979
Nairobi, Kenya
Alma mater Tisch School of Arts
Occupation Actor
Years active 2006–present

Edi Mue Gathegi (born March 10, 1979) is a Kenyan American film, stage and television actor. He appeared as recurring character Dr. Jeffrey Cole (aka "Big Love") in the television series House, as Cheese in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone and as Laurent in the films Twilight, its sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Darwin in X-Men: First Class. He also featured in a short television series, Into the Badlands as Baron Jacobee. He's has also been a recurring character in NBC's television series, The Blacklist as Matias Solomon, an operative for The Cabal, a covert Organisation.

Early life

Born in Eastlands, Nairobi, Kenya, Gathegi grew up in Albany, California.[2] As an undeclared undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was more interested in playing basketball and was good at it, until he injured his knee; this plunged him into depression, so he took up an acting class as an "easy course". This is how he discovered his love for acting.[2] Afterwards, studied at New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2005.[3] Gathegi's career began in theatre,[4] and his stage credits include Two Trains Running at the Old Globe Theatre, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Cyrano de Bergerac, among others.[1]

Career

Gathegi's first professional role was the Haitian Cabbie in the 2006 film Crank. Though he had originally auditioned for the role of Kaylo, the producers gave the role to Efren Ramirez and instead offered Gathegi an appearance as the Haitian Cabbie.[4] He was dubious at first about performing a Haitian accent, but was coached by a Haitian friend.[4] In 2007, after guest-starring on Lincoln Heights and Veronica Mars, Gathegi went on to star as Bodie in Death Sentence, Darudi in The Fifth Patient and Cheese in Gone Baby Gone. He later had a recurring role as Mormon intern Dr. Jeffrey Cole on the television medical drama House, his character was often mocked for his religious beliefs by Dr. House, who himself is an atheist. He also guest-starred on CSI: Miami, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Life on Mars in 2008 before being cast as Laurent in Twilight. When Gathegi first auditioned for the 2008 film, adapted from the same-titled first book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, he had not heard of the series and was not aware that his character was a vampire.[5] He now has read the whole series and calls himself a hardcore fan.[5][6] He portrays Eddie Willers in Atlas Shrugged (2011), based on Ayn Rand's novel of the same name. He later portrayed another Haitian character, Jean Baptiste, in the fifth season of Justified, but was unhappy with the role and asked to be written off the show.[7]

Filmography

Film roles
Year Title Role Notes
2006 Crank Haitian Cabbie
2007 Gone Baby Gone Cheese
2007 The Fifth Patient Darudi
2007 Death Sentence Bodie
2008 Twilight Laurent
2009 My Bloody Valentine 3D Deputy Martin
2009 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Laurent
2011 X-Men: First Class Armando Muñoz / Darwin
2011 Atlas Shrugged Eddie Willers
2011 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I Laurent Flashback only
2014 Shiva and May Dex
2015 This Isn't Funny Ryan
2015 Aloha Lt. Col. Curtis
2015 Criminal Activities Marques
TBA Transformation Awaits Lamay Pre-production
Television roles
Year Title Role Notes
2007 House Dr. Jeffrey Cole Recurring role, 7 episodes
2007 Lincoln Heights Boa 3 episodes
2007 Veronica Mars Zeke Molinda Episode: "I Know What You'll Do Next Summer"
2008 CSI: Miami Freddie Mays Episode: "Tunnel Vision"
2008 Life on Mars Fletcher Bellow Episode: "Things to Do in New York When You Think You're Dead"
2008 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Skinny Dude Episode: "Leave Out All the Rest"
2011 Nikita Kalume Ungara Episode: "Girl's Best Friend"
2012 Phineas and Ferb Iggy/Various characters 2 episodes
2013 The Family Tools Darren Poynton Main role, 10 episodes
2013 Beauty & the Beast Kyle 3 episodes
2013 Red Widow Leon 3 episodes
2014 Justified Jean Baptiste 4 episodes
2014 Wild Card Tres Unsold television pilot
2015 Proof Zed Main role, 10 episodes
2015–present The Blacklist Matias Solomon Recurring role, 13 episodes
2015 Into the Badlands Jacobee 2 episodes
2016 StartUp Ronald Dacey Main role, 10 episodes

Awards and nominations

Ovation Awards

References

  1. 1 2 Shirlene Alusa-Brown (April 7, 2008). "Edi Mue Gathegi – Slated to Shine in 'Twilight'". Jamati Online. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
  2. 1 2 Cassandra Handley (November 4, 2008). "Q&A: Twilight's Edi Gathegi". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
  3. "NYU Graduate Acting Alumni". 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
  4. 1 2 3 "Twilight Lexicon Q&A with Edi Gathegi" (PDF). TwilightLexicon.com. March 10, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
  5. 1 2 Denise Martin (October 28, 2008). "'Twilight' Countdown: Edi Gathegi's vampire love". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
  6. Sara Castillo (August 4, 2008). "We Speak with 'Twilight's' Jacob and Laurent!". FearNet.com. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
  7. Bierly, Mandi (February 5, 2014). "'Justified' postmortem: EP Graham Yost dissects 'Shot All to Hell'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  8. "Kiss Me Kate Tops 2011 Ovation Award Nominations.". 19 September 2011.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.