Noah Emmerich

After having his start on the stages of his native New York City, actor Noah Emmerich slowly, but surely rose to stardom as a prominent character actor who made a number of memorable appearances throughout his prolific career.

Emmerich first broke through as a happily married, but fiery tempered man in Ted Demme's "Beautiful Girls" (1996) before raising his profile with noticeable supporting parts in the big screen favorites "The Truman Show" (1998) and "Miracle" (2004). But the small screen proved to be fertile ground for the actor, as he found meatier parts as a guest star on shows like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ) and "Monk" (USA Network, 2002-09), before landing a recurring role as a disgraced federal agent on "White Collar" (USA Network, 2009-14).

From there, he was the lone survivor of the zombie apocalypse at the Centers for Disease Control on "The Walking Dead" (AMC, 2010- ) and finally achieved leading role status as a suspicious FBI agent living next door to undercover KGB agents on "The Americans" (FX, 2013- ). Regardless of the role's prominence, Emmerich always brought depth and gravitas to every character he played.

Born on Feb. 27, 1965 in New York City, Emmerich was raised by his father, Andre, an art dealer and gallery owner, and his mother, Constance, a concert pianist. After graduating Yale University with a history degree, Emmerich studied the Meisner technique with acting coach Ron Stetson at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

On screen, he made his television debut on the sitcom "Flying Blind" (Fox, 1992-93) starring Corey Parker and Téa Leoni, while he made his first big screen appearance as a rookie cop in the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit "Last Action Hero" (1993). Paying his dues further, Emmerich had small roles in TV-movies like "Precious Victims" (CBS, 1993) and "Jack Reed: A Search for Justice" (NBC, 1994), before making a guest appearance on "Melrose Place" (Fox, 1992-99).

In collaboration with director Ted Demme, the actor had his breakthrough role in "Beautiful Girls" (1996), playing the sole married member of a group of male friends who appears happy on the outside, but possesses a temper when provoked. The role allowed Emmerich to convey a maturity and dedication that provided the backbone to the film's ensemble, which also included Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon and Lauren Holly.

Working with Demme on two more projects, Emmerich played a blue-collar resident of Boston, MA, entangled with Irish-American gangsters in "Monument Ave." (1998) and was a 1940s baseball scout searching jails for talented players in "Life" (1999). From there, he received prominent exposure as Jim Carrey's best friend Marlon in Peter Weir's acclaimed film "The Truman Show" (1998), where critics dazzled by Carrey's dramatic turn overlooked Emmerich's outstanding supporting work.

Meanwhile, he turned out a solid assortment of turns in films including "Tumbleweeds" (1999), "Crazy in Alabama" (1999), "Frequency" (2000), "Windtalkers" (2002) and "Beyond Borders" (2003) before being cast as Craig Patrick, the kindhearted assistant coach to Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) in "Miracle" (2004), the true-life Cinderella sports story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team beating Russia. Emmerich's performance made for an important counterpoint to Russell's driven, uncompromising Burns and added an important balance of compassion among the adults in the film.

He went on to play a corrupt police detective caught on video robbing and killing drug dealers in the high-concept thriller "Cellular" (2004) before appearing in the moving drama about the 1994 Rwandan genocide "Sometimes in April" (2005).

Though prominent in features, Emmerich found more compelling work on the small screen with episodes of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ) and "Monk" (USA Network, 2002-09). In between, he had supporting turns in "Little Children" (2006) and "Pride and Glory" (2008), before landing a recurring role as discredited Justice Department agent Garrett Fowler on "White Collar" (USA Network, 2009-14).

Following a turn as Clive Owen's boss in David Schwimmer's second directing effort, "Trust" (2010), Emmerich starred opposite Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in "Fair Game" (2010), Doug Liman's look at the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame as political payback. Back on the small screen, he was Dr. Edwin Jenner, the sole survivor inside the Centers for Disease Control following the zombie apocalypse during the first season of "The Walking Dead" (AMC, 2010- ).

He went on to play an army colonel trying to keep a lid on an alien landing in J.J. Abrams' "Super 8" (2011), before returning to regular series status as a former undercover FBI agent living next door to a married couple (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) who happen to be sleeper KGB agents on "The Americans" (FX, 2013- ), Graham Yost's acclaimed espionage drama set in early 1980s America.

By Shawn Dwyer