Mekhi Phifer

Mekhi Phifer (born December 29, 1974)[1][2] is an American actor. He portrayed Dr. Greg Pratt on NBC's long-running medical drama ER and had a co-starring role opposite Eminem in the feature film 8 Mile. He was a regular on the Fox crime show Lie to Me in the role of Ben Reynolds before season three, and also starred as CIA agent Rex Matheson in Torchwood: Miracle Day.
== Early life ==
Phifer was born in Harlem, New York City. He grew up in a single-parent household with his mother, Rhoda Phifer, a high-school teacher.[3]
== Career ==
In 1994, Phifer attended an open-casting call for director Spike Lee's Clockers, beating over a thousand others to get the lead role as a narcotics dealer embroiled in a murder cover-up.[2] He followed that role with another in the comedy spoof feature High School High (which also starred his former wife Malinda Williams) and continued by co-starring in the horror film I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr.
He portrayed Dr. Gregory Pratt on the medical drama ER, which he started in April 2002. Phifer left the show in September 2008, in the first episode of Season 15. His character died during the conclusion of the season 14 finale cliffhanger involving an ambulance explosion that was rigged to kill an injured FBI informant (Steve Buscemi). During his six years in the show, he was nominated twice for an NAACP Image Award.
Phifer's television credits include the movies The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), HBO's Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground (1997), and Brian's Song (2001) (as former Chicago Bear Gale Sayers). He received additional notice for his performance opposite singer Beyoncé Knowles (from Destiny's Child) on MTV's alternative take on the Carmen legend with the movie Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001). Phifer had a recurring guest role in Seasons 5 and 6 of Homicide: Life on the Street, portraying "Junior Bunk", the troubled nephew of Baltimore drug lord Luther Mahoney, and also guest-starred in New York Undercover. Likewise, he earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for another TV movie, A Lesson Before Dying, opposite Don Cheadle. In 2009, Phifer began a guest-starring arc on the Fox drama Lie to Me.[4]
Among Phifer's other big-screen credits are Soul Food, The Biography of Spud Webb, Hell's Kitchen, NYC, Tears of a Clown, O (as the titular character Odin a.k.a. O), and the thriller Uninvited Guest (as Silk). He appeared in Impostor as well as Paid in Full, an urban classic, that has given him notorious recognition as he portrayed Mitch and director Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile, opposite Eminem. He is mentioned in the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.
In June 2011, Phifer starred alongside John Barrowman and Eve Myles as CIA agent Rex Matheson in Torchwood: Miracle Day, the fourth series of the BBC/Starz Entertainment television show Torchwood.
Phifer starred as Agent Collins in the fourth season of White Collar.
Phifer made a guest appearance on the sitcom series Husbands in its second season.[5]
In fall 2016, he joined the TV series Frequency as a series regular.
== Personal life ==
Phifer has a son, Omikaye Phifer, with his former wife, actress Malinda Williams. His second son, Mekhi Thira Phifer Jr., was born to Oni Souratha in Los Angeles in 2007.[6] On March 30, 2013, Phifer wed his longtime girlfriend Reshelet Barnes, in Beverly Hills, California.[7]
== Filmography ==
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1995	Clockers 	Ronald 'Strike' Dunham	
1995	The Tuskegee Airmen 	Lewis Johns 	
1996	Girl 6 	Himself 	Uncredited cameo
1996	High School High 	Griff McReynolds 	
1997	Soul Food 	Lem 	
1998	Hell's Kitchen 	Johnny 	
1998	I Still Know What You Did Last Summer	Tyrell Martin 	
1999	A Lesson Before Dying 	Jefferson 	
1999	Uninvited Guest 	Silk 	
2000	Shaft 	Trey Howard 	
2001	Carmen: A Hip Hopera 	Derek Hill 	
2001	O 	Odin "O" James 	
2001	Brian's Song 	Gale Sayers 	
2002	8 Mile 	David "Future" Porter 	
2002	Paid in Full 	Mitch 	
2002	Impostor 	Cale 	
2003	Honey 	Chaz 	
2004	Dawn of the Dead 	Andre 	
2005	Slow Burn 	Isaac Duperde 	
2006	Puff, Puff, Pass 	Big Daddy 	
2007	This Christmas 	Gerald 	
2008	Nora's Hair Salon 2: A Cut Above 	Dr. Terry 	
2008	A Talent for Trouble 	Mekhi 	
2009	A Day in the Life 	King Khi 	
2011	Flypaper 	Darrien 	
2011	Last Man Standing 	Jeremy Davis 	
2012	The Love Section 	James Johnson 	
2013	The Suspect 	The Suspect 	
2014	A Day Late and a Dollar Short 	Lewis 	
2014	Divergent 	Max 	
2015	The Divergent Series: Insurgent 	Max 	
2016	The Divergent Series: Allegiant 	Max 	
2017	Chocolate City: Vegas Strip 	Best Valentine 	
=== Television appearances ===
* New York Undercover, 1995–1996, 2 episodes - Dion Broat and Sekou
* Punk'd, 2004, one episode - Himself
* Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2005, 4 episodes - Omar Jones
* ER, 2002–2008 - Gregory Pratt
* Homicide: Life on the Street, 1996–1998, 3 episodes - Nathaniel Lee 'Junior Bunk' Mahoney
* The Black Poker Stars Invitational, 2008, BET - Himself
* Lie to Me, 2009–2011 - Ben Reynolds
* Torchwood, 2011 - Agent Rex Matheson
* Psych, 2012 - Drake
* White Collar, 2012, 2 episodes - Kyle Collins
* Husbands, 2012 - Mark
* House of Lies, 2014 - Dre Collins
* Roots, 2016 - Jerusalem
* Secret City, 2016 (*US Ambassador to Australia) - Ambassador Moreton
* Frequency, 2016 - Satch Reyna
* Match Game, 2017 - Himself
* Chicago P.D., 2018 - Joe Baker
* The Bobby Brown Story, 2018 - Tommy Brown
=== Music videos ===
* "Many Men (Wish Death)" by 50 Cent
* "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica
* "Don't Let Go" by En Vogue
* "Nobody" by Keith Sweat featuring Athena Cage
* "Flava in Ya Ear" by Craig Mack
* "BOOM" by Royce da 5'9"
* "Wu Wear" by Wu-Tang Clan
* "Just Lose It" by Eminem
* "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
* "So Many Ways" by The Braxtons
* "Without Me" by Eminem
== Other activities ==
Phifer was the 2004 winner of the Celebrity Poker Showdown Championship, defeating Neil Patrick Harris during the fourth season. Phifer plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Love Our Children USA charity. Phifer is chairman of the board of trustees of The Vine Group USA.[8] a non-profit organization established in 2000 to provide educational resources to universities in Africa. He has signed up with Full Tilt Poker. He has his own well on the poker forum 2+2.
Phifer is an owner of a number of Athlete's Foot athletic shoe store franchises in California.[2]
In January 2011, Mekhi Phifer launched Third Reel Films[9] The stated mission of the company is to provide an environment for filmmakers to showcase their work to entertainment representatives, acquisition executives and other key-industry professionals.