Eriq La Salle

Erik Ki La Salle (born July 23, 1962), professionally known as Eriq La Salle, is an American actor, director, writer and producer. La Salle is known for his performance as Dr. Peter Benton in the NBC medical drama ER (1994–2002; 2008–2009) which earned him three NAACP Image Awards and nominations for a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards.

Early life

La Salle, one of four children, was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, by his mother, Ada Haynes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is an alumnus of Weaver High School and the Artists Collective, Inc. in Hartford. He attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division for two years as a member of Group 13 (1980–1984),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> then attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Graduate Acting Program<ref name="NBC bio">Template:Cite web</ref> in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

At the time of his graduation from NYU, La Salle was cast in Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry V.<ref name="NBC bio"/> Soon after, he found continuous acting work on Broadway, off-Broadway, and on several daytime TV dramas including One Life to Live, where he played the reporter Mike Rivers.

In 1988, La Salle co-starred as Darryl Jenks in the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America.

In 1994, the medical drama ER premiered on NBC with La Salle starring as Dr. Peter Benton. He held the role until leaving during the eighth season. He returned to ER for three episodes during its 15th and final season, including an uncredited appearance as himself in the opening of "Heal Thyself" to tell the audience of the death of the show's creator Michael Crichton. During season 15, he returned to direct an episode.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On January 31, 2003, he made a cameo appearance in Biker Boyz as Slick Will, a mechanic. He played a Jamaican gangster in the independent film Johnny Was<ref>Johnny Was at MySpace.com</ref> opposite Vinnie Jones, Samantha Mumba, Lennox Lewis, and Roger Daltrey. La Salle lived in Belfast for four weeks while filming the movie, which he supported at the premiere of the film during the 2006 American Black Film Festival in Miami.

La Salle starred in the Hallmark Channel original movie, Relative Stranger, which premiered on March 14, 2009. Also in the movie were Cicely Tyson and La Salle's former ER castmates Michael Michele (Dr. Cleo Finch) and Michael Beach (Al Boulet).

In 2010, La Salle played the United Nations Secretary General in the series finale of 24, and guest-starred in an episode of Covert Affairs in August of the same year. In 2011, he played two recurring roles: first as a Caribbean community leader who rallied against the product Rasta Monsta in HBO's How to Make it in America, the second as the neuropsychiatrist E-Mo in CBS' A Gifted Man.

In 1996, La Salle began his directorial career with his debut in the HBO made-for-TV movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault, starring Don Cheadle, James Earl Jones and Forest Whitaker. Shortly after that, La Salle directed the pilot for Soul Food: The Series on Showtime.

In 2002, he produced the feature film The Salton Sea. That same year, he produced, directed and starred in the movie Crazy as Hell. In 2003 he wrote, directed and starred in "Memphis", an episode of The Twilight Zone. He directed the 2012 Hallmark Channel movie Playing Father, and multiple episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,<ref>Eriq La Salle at IMDb.com</ref> CSI: NY, Ringer, and NBC’s spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime.

La Salle's first novel, Laws of Depravity, was published in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2015, La Salle returned to television with a role in Under the DomeTemplate:'s third season, after directing one episode of the second season. He also directed an episode in the third season. He both acted in and directed episodes of CSI: Cyber. He performed in other series, such as The Night Shift and Madam Secretary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2016, La Salle directed the episode "Wingman" in the Fox series Lucifer and the episode "Black and Blue" of TNT's Murder in the First. He co-starred as Will Munson in the 2017 superhero film Logan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> La Salle also directed and produced multiple episodes of Chicago P.D. throughout its many seasons.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1996	Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Psalms from the Underground	Template:Yes	Template:No	Short film
2002	The Salton Sea	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Crazy as Hell	Template:Yes	Template:Yes

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Rappin'	Ice
	Cut and Run	Fargas
1986	Where Are the Children?	Deputy Bernie Miles
1987	Five Corners	Samuel Kemp
1988	Coming to America	Darryl Jenks
1990	Jacob's Ladder	Frank
1994	Color of Night	Anderson
	Drop Squad	Bruford Jamison Jr
1996	Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault	Diego
2002	One Hour Photo	Det. James Van Der Zee
	Crazy as Hell	Barnett
2003	Biker Boyz	Tariq 'Slick Will'	Uncredited
2005	The Seat Filler	Alonso Grant
	Inside Out	Doctor Peoples
	Conviction	Peter Seidman
2006	Johnny Was	Julius
2017	Logan	Will Munson

Television

Year	Title	Director	Executive producer	Notes
2000	Soul Food	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "The More Things Change"
2003	The Twilight Zone	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Memphis"
2007	Without a Trace	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Desert Springs"
2007–2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Template:Yes	Template:No	2 episodes
2009	ER	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Family Man"
	Old Skool	Template:No	Template:Yes	TV special
2010	CSI: NY	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Pot of Gold"
2011–2012	Ringer	Template:Yes	Template:No	2 episodes
2012	A Gifted Man	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "In Case of Co-Dependants"
2014	Crisis	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Best Laid Plans"
	Madam Secretary	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Blame Canada"
2014–2015	The Night Shift	Template:Yes	Template:No	5 episodes
	Under the Dome	Template:Yes	Template:No	2 episodes
2015–2016	CSI: Cyber	Template:Yes	Template:No	3 episodes
2015	The Messengers	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Eye in the Sky"
	Rosewood	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Vitamins and Vandals"
	Battle Creek	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Gingerbread Man"
2016	Lucifer	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Wingman"
	Once Upon a Time	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Ruby Slippers"
	Murder in the First	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Black and Blue"
2016–2021	Chicago P.D.	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2016–2017	Chicago Med	Template:Yes	Template:No	2 episodes
2017	Chicago Justice	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Dead Meat"
	APB	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Fueling Fires"
	The Quad	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "#TheCagedBirdSings"
	Training Day	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "Elegy: Part 2"
	The Librarians	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "And the Steal of Fortune"
2021	Law & Order: Organized Crime	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode "An Inferior Product"
2022–2025	Law & Order	Template:Yes	Template:No	3 episodes
2024–2025	FBI	Template:Yes	Template:No	2 episodes
2025	On Call	Template:Yes	Template:Yes

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Spenser: For Hire	Jeffrey Miller	Episode "Angel of Desolation"
	One Life to Live	Mike Rivers	1 episode
	ABC Afterschool Special	Charlie	Episode "Teen Father"
1987	Another World	Charles Thompson	1 episode
	Mariah		Episode "Equations"
	Vietnam War Story	K.C.	Episode "The Mine"
	Leg Work	Goro Asato	Episode "Mystery Woman"
1988	Knightwatch	Derek D.	Episode "Codes"
1989	Gideon Oliver	Ezra	Episode "By the Waters of Babylon"
1990	B.L. Stryker	Mark Hastings Jr	Episode "Winner Takes All"
	A Different World	Prof. Paul Mann	Episode "The Power of the Pen"
1991	L.A. Law	Kenny Webster	Episode "Speak, Lawyers, for Me"
	Screenplay	Eric	Episode "Murder in Oakland"
1992	Quantum Leap	Bobby Lee	Episode "A Song for the Soul"
	The Human Factor	Michael Stoven	5 episodes
1994	Under Suspicion	Det. LeBlanc	Episode "Pilot"
1994–2002, 2009	ER	Dr. Peter Benton	171 episodes
1998	Adventures from the Book of Virtues	King Menelaus	Episode "Determination"
	The Larry Sanders Show	Himself	Episode "Beverly's Secret"
2003	The Twilight Zone	Ray Ellison	Episode "Memphis"
	The System	Andrew Evans	9 episodes
2006	Without a Trace	Aaron Gibbs	Episode "The Calm Before"
2010	24	UN Secretary General	2 episodes
	Covert Affairs	Christopher McAuley	Episode "In the Light"
2011	How to Make It in America	Everton Thompson	3 episodes
2011–2012	A Gifted Man	Evan 'E-Mo' Morris	5 episodes
2012	Blackout	George Lumas	3 episodes
2013	We Need Help	Police Officer
2014–2015	Under the Dome	Hektor Martin	5 episodes
2025	On Call	Sergeant Lasman	8 episodes

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Producer
1999	Mind Prey	Template:No	Template:Yes
2013	Playing Father	Template:Yes	Template:No

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role
1985	Out of the Darkness	Bobby
1988	What Price Victory	Trumayne James
1989	Magic Moments	Dancing Guy
	When We Were Young	Virgil Hawkins
1990	Hammer, Slammer, & Slade	Jack Spade
1991	Eyes of a Witness	Mchumbo
1993	Empty Cradle	Detective Knoll
1999	Mind Prey	Lucas Davenport
2009	Relative Stranger	Walter Clemons
	MegaFault	Charley 'Boomer' Baxter

Bibliography

Comic books

• 25 to Life (3 issues, 12-Guage Comics) (2010)

Novels

• Laws of Depravity (2012)
• Laws of Wrath (2014)
• Laws of Annihilation (2023)
• Laws of Solomon (2026)

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
1995	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series	ER	Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
1996	Magnolia Stage Award	Best Supporting Actor		Template:Won
	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Won
1997	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film		Template:Nom
	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Online Film & Television Association	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Won
	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series		Template:Nom
1998	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Online Film & Television Association	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Won
1999	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Won
	Online Film & Television Association	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Won
2000	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
2001	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Template:Nom
2002	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series		Template:Won
2003	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Independent Actor	Crazy as Hell	Template:Won
	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Independent Film		Template:Nom
2009	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Episode: PTSD	Template:Nom
2010		Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special	Relative Stranger	Template:Nom

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0005113

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