Gary Dourdan

Gary Dourdan (born December 11, 1966) is an Haitian American actor. He is best known for portraying Warrick Brown on the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Dourdan was born Gary Robert Durdin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Sandy, a teacher and fashion designer, and Robert Durdin, an entrepreneur and agent for jazz musicians.^[1][2] Dourdan is the second youngest of five children. When he was 6 years old, his older brother Darryl was murdered at 23 years old while in Haiti, in an effort to research the family lineage. He was found dead a few days later falling from a balcony. The case remains unsolved.^[2][3] He moved with his family to Willingboro, New Jersey when he was in his youth. At this time his interests included acting, music, and martial arts. Later Dourdan moved to New York City and worked as a doorman at a rehearsal studio, where he met some of Manhattan's promising young artists.

Dourdan played in several bands in New York City in the early 1990s and acted in regional theatre around the tristate area. He received his first break when Debbie Allen cast him as Shazza Zulu on A Different World, based on a tape of him in an avant-garde play. In 1996, Dourdan appeared in the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Supermanepisode "Never On Sunday", where he played, Ziggy, an assistant to Baron Sunday. In 1997, Dourdan played the character Christie, the first mate, crack-shot, and second in command of the spaceship Betty, in the film Alien: Resurrection. He also appears in the films Playing God and Thursday, and on television starred in the Dick Wolf productionSwift Justice and played a recurring role on the Showtime series Soul Food until he nabbed the part of Warrick Brown on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 2007, he played the character Cameron, the boyfriend of Rowena Price (played by Halle Berry), in the film Perfect Stranger.

Dourdan's most popular role began as a cast member of the original CSI series, which debuted on October 6, 2000. He played analyst Warrick Brown who, viewers find out, has a checkered past fraught with gambling problems. By working in Las Vegas, the character is able to use his personal experiences from the street to help him throughout his career. Ultimately, he ends up battling his demons throughout the show instead of overcoming them.

In 2008, there was media speculation surrounding Dourdan's CSI contract negotiations with CBS. The parties could not reach a resolution, and as a result his contract was not renewed. It was reported on April 14, 2008, that Dourdan was leaving the show.^[4] In the Season 8 finale, Dourdan's character was shot and left for dead at the episode's end. The Season 9 premiere revealed Dourdan's character dying in the arms of his colleague and friend Gil Grissom.

• Dourdan played Janet Jackson's love interest in the video for her 1993 hit "Again".
• He had a cameo appearance in the music video "Move the Crowd" by Eric B. & Rakim.
• Dourdan joined hip hop artist DMC (of Run–D.M.C.) onstage at the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
• He sang alongside Macy Gray at the 2005 Emmy Awards.
• Dourdan is an alternative musician and a record producer.
• He acted in A Different World as Shazza Zulu (1991–92).^{[citation needed]}
• TV Guide voted him the Sexiest CSI actor on TV in its 2008 "Sexiest" issue.^[7]
• He was the host of a BET spoken word show entitled Lyric Cafe.
• In 2008 he voiced the character Crispus Allen in three of the six short films for Batman: Gotham Knight. The animated short films were released straight to DVD and chronicled the time in between the films Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008).
• He portrayed Ray Carter in the video games FlatOut 2 and FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage.
• He portrayed Chef McKenna in the 2011 film Jumping the Broom.
• He was also featured in the film, Weekend at Bernie's 2, where he played a member of a money laundering cartel. He had no character name in the movie, but in the credits, he is known as Cartel Man #2.
• Also he showed up in few episodes of serial "Glee" as a compositor (season 5)
• Last his role was in serial "Mistresses" of an ex police officer