Alex Kingston
  Dr. Elizabeth Corday
 

    Alex Kingston, who won acclaim in the title role of the PBS miniseries Moll Flanders,
    joined television's top-rated series, ER, during its fourth season, as the spirited British
    surgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Corday.

    Growing up on the outskirts of London, Kingston was first introduced to the theater when
    she and her family visited her mother's native Germany, where she saw her uncle, an
    actor, perform. She made her own stage debut at age five, playing the angel Gabriel in a
    Nativity play. "My mother made me these big, beautiful wings," says Kingston, "and the
    other kids—without wings—were all jealous. I was very excited, and then more than a bit
    upset when I discovered that Gabriel was really a guy."

    Kingston was inspired to pursue an acting career by her English teacher at the all-girls
    grammar school she attended in Epsom, where she often had leading roles in school
    plays. She landed her first professional role at age 15 as a judo-trained bully on the
    successful British TV series Grange Hill.

    After finishing school, she moved to London, where she was accepted into the Royal
    Academy of Dramatic Arts. After completing the two-year study program, Kingston worked
    in repertory theater across England. She joined the famed Royal Shakespeare Company,
    where she appeared in productions of Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, Love's Labours
    Lost, The Curse of the Starving Class and The Bright and Bold Design. She also starred in
    the Birmingham Repertory's productions of Othello, The Alchemist, Travelling Players,
    Saved, Julius Caesar and See How They Run.

    While Kingston tended to play classical characters on the stage, she took on
    contemporary roles in British television programs, including A Killing Exchange, The Bill,
    Crocodile Shoes, The Knock and I Hate Christmas, and in the American cable movies
    Weapons of Mass Distraction and The Infiltrator.

    Her feature-film credits include Carrington; The St. Exupery Story; The Cook, The Thief,
    His Wife and Her Lover; Curran's Wife; The Wildcats of St. Trinians; A Pin for the Butterfly;
    and The Woman and the Wolf. During her recent hiatus from ER, Kingston appeared in a
    cameo role in the upcoming film This Space Between Us.

    Kingston, who researched her role as Dr. Corday by spending time with surgeons in a
    London hospital, says of her American television-series debut: "If one's going to do an
    American television show, ER's definitely the one to do. It's compelling dramatic television
    and the actors are so good."

    Having recently relocated from London, she now lives in Los Angeles. Her birthday is
    March 11.

    Anthony Edwards and his ER character, an overworked emergency-room doctor, share a
    passion for their work. "Dr. Greene is a person who went into medicine because of his love
    for it," says Edwards, who spent time in emergency wards to research his role. "Doctors
    who work in emergency rooms are the cowboys of medicine. They have no idea what's
    going to come through the door, and they're forced to make split-second decisions."

    For his work on ER, Edwards has earned three Emmy Award nominations for Lead Actor
    in a Drama Series; two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a
    Male Actor in a Drama Series; a 1998 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an
    Actor in a Television Series, Drama; a People's Choice Award as Favorite Male Television
    Performer in a New Series; and three nominations as Best Actor by Viewers for Quality
    Television.

    Edwards was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, the youngest of five children.
    His mother is an artist; his father, an architect. Edwards became interested in acting early
    and by age 16 he had appeared in dozens of musicals and plays. After high school he
    attended a summer workshop at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He then
    studied at the University of Southern California for two years, during which time he won
    roles in such feature films as Heart Like a Wheel and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In
    1982, he left USC when he was cast in the series It Takes Two, starring Richard Crenna,
    Patty Duke and Helen Hunt. He continued amassing feature credits, such as Revenge of
    the Nerds, Gotcha! and The Sure Thing. In 1986, Edwards played a doomed fighter pilot in
    Top Gun, and later starred in features such as Miracle Mile, Mr. North, Hawks and the hit
    film The Client. Through his production company, Aviator Films, he executive produced and
    starred in the feature film Us Begins with You. He recently completed production on the
    feature film Dancing About Architecture, in which he co-starred with Sean Connery and
    Gillian Anderson.

    On television, Edwards had a recurring role as a hyperallergic lawyer on Northern
    Exposure, and earned a CableACE nomination as Best Actor for the special Sexual
    Healing. He won critical acclaim for his starring role in the miniseries In Cold Blood. On
    stage he appeared in Daniel in Babylon at the Las Palmas Theater in Los Angeles; and
    off-Broadway in Ten Below at the WPA.

    Edwards is an honorary board member of Access Theater, a repertory acting company
    composed of disabled artists. He directed an award-winning documentary about his group,
    which is distributed in high schools around the United States. He also directed the feature
    film Charlie's Ghost Story, a modern-day Mark Twain adaptation. In 1996, Edwards
    became the first ER cast member to direct an episode of the series and he served as
    director again during the 1997-98 season.

    In his leisure time, Edwards enjoys playing tennis and staying at home with his wife,
    Jeanine, their young son, Bailey, and their daughter, Esme. His birthday is July 19.

    Stardom on ER has helped propel two-time Emmy nominee George Clooney to a booming
    career in motion pictures as well as on television. After his work on the romantic comedy
    One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and his critically acclaimed turn in Quentin Tarantino's
    From Dusk Till Dawn, Clooney took on the role of Batman in the hit motion picture Batman
    and Robin. In a September 1997 project, he co-starred with Nicole Kidman in The
    Peacemaker, the debut motion picture—directed by ER Emmy Award winner Mimi
    Leder—from DreamWorks SKG. Clooney also traveled to Australia to film a cameo role in
    Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line. His most recent film role is that of a fugitive bank
    robber in the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's best-selling novel Out of Sight.

    Clooney was born in Lexington and raised in Augusta, Kentucky. He began finding his way
    around TV studios at age five, when his father, veteran newscaster Nick Clooney, hosted a
    talk show in Cincinnati. Like other members of his family, young George was asked to
    pitch in by selling products and playing sketch characters.

    At first, Clooney wanted to emulate his dad and became a broadcast journalist, but he
    later decided he did not want to compete in the same arena. He studied for a few years at
    Northern Kentucky University. An excellent baseball player, he also tried out for the
    Cincinnati Reds, hoping to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing for the team.

    At last, 21-year-old Clooney found his calling when his best friend and cousin, Miguel
    Ferrer (singer Rosemary Clooney is George's aunt and Miguel's mother), came to
    Lexington and helped him earn a part in a small feature film. Clooney arrived in California in
    1982 and spent the next year unemployed, sleeping in a friend's closet and bicycling to
    auditions. After he completed an unreleased feature with Charlie Sheen, an ABC casting
    executive signed Clooney to a contract. When it expired, he joined the cast of the comedy
    E/R (starring Elliott Gould and Mary McDonnell) at midseason.

    During the intervening years before he joined ER, Clooney starred in a slew of pilots and
    popped up on The Facts of Life (as a neighbor), Roseanne (as Roseanne's boss), Sunset
    Beat (as a cop moonlighting as a rock star), Baby Talk (as a construction worker), Bodies
    of Evidence (as a cop), and Sisters (as Detective Falconer). Cast as the charming and
    talented Dr. Ross, Clooney had the opportunity to play a role that took his career in a new
    direction.

    On stage he has appeared in 15 plays, including a starring role in the award-winning
    Vicious at Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theater in 1987. Away from the set, Clooney
    is an avid golfer and a devoted Cincinnati Reds and Bengals fan. He also enjoys collecting
    motorcycles and playing basketball. His birthday is May 6.

    Gloria Reuben was born in Toronto, and was raised there and in nearby London, Ontario,
    as the second youngest of six children. She credits the early influence of her mother, an
    accomplished singer, and her older brother, a Broadway actor, for inspiring her to develop
    her performing talents. She began playing piano as a child and studied ballet, jazz, and
    music technique and theory at the prestigious Canadian Royal Conservatory.

    In 1988, she relocated to Los Angeles and raised her television profile as a recurring
    regular on The Round Table and with guest starring roles on China Beach (produced by ER
    executive producer John Wells), The Young Riders, and other series.

    Soon after, Reuben appeared as a homicide detective in three episodes of NBC's
    Homicide: Life on the Street. She then joined ER in a recurring role as Jeanie Boulet, a
    married therapist who provided home care for Dr. Benton's (Eriq La Salle) ailing mother and
    found herself falling in love with Benton. When she joined ER as a series regular in the
    second season, her character was promoted to a physician's assistant and soon ended
    her rocky romance with Benton. During the third season, Reuben earned an Emmy Award
    nomination for portraying Jeanie's courageous battle to live a life of dignity despite being
    HIV-positive.

    Reuben co-starred as Jean-Claude Van Damme's partner in the feature film Timecop and
    starred with Johnny Depp in Nick of Time. During her recent hiatus, she completed
    production on the independent film Macbeth in Manhattan and starred in the HBO movie
    Indiscreet, opposite Luke Perry.

    Reuben finds a particular kind of synchronicity with her character, Jeanie: "She's
    strong-willed, sharp and intelligent, but has a dry sense of humor. She knows exactly what
    she's doing professionally, but has a nurturing side too."

    Reuben relaxes by playing classical piano, swimming, reading and running along the
    beach: "It keeps me balanced," she says. She lives in Los Angeles. Her birthday is June
    9.

Julianna Margulies
    Nurse Carol Hathaway
 

    A 1995 Emmy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Julianna
    Margulies has earned three consecutive Emmy nominations playing ER's head nurse,
    Carol Hathaway.

    Born in Spring Valley, New York (just outside New York City), Margulies is the youngest of
    three daughters. Her father is an advertising writer, and her mother is a former dancer with
    the American Ballet Theater. Almost before she could walk, Margulies and her family were
    off to Paris, where they lived for two years before relocating to England. When she was
    five, they returned to Spring Valley, and five years later they moved back to England. At
    14, Margulies began high school in New Hampshire. She eventually obtained a B.A. in
    liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College, where she appeared on campus in several plays.

    After college, she supported herself by appearing in regional-theater productions, including
    the Yale Repertory Theater. Later, writer/producer Tom Fontana wrote her into a recurring
    role on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street as a waitress and violinist who attracted
    Detective Bolander (Ned Beatty).

    She received critical acclaim in Bruce Beresford's Paradise Road starring opposite Glenn
    Close. She also starred in The Traveler with Bill Paxton. Her most recent films include The
    Newton Boys with Matthew McConaughey, and A Price Above Rubies with Renee
    Zellweger.

    Margulies was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award
    for her work on ER.

    Former Emmy nominee Kellie Martin (Life Goes On) takes a break from her real-life role as
    a senior majoring in art history at Yale University to join the cast of ER as third-year
    medical student Lucy Knight.

    A native of Riverside, California, Martin started acting at age seven, thanks mainly to her
    Aunt Rhonda, who was nanny to the late Michael Landon's children. "I was a real ham, and
    being the center of attention made me happy," says the actress, who wangled an audition
    for Landon's Father Murphy series. A small role on that show touched off a career.

    Steady work continued throughout her childhood, which, she says, remained normal. "I
    don't think the child actor syndrome will hurt me because my family is so grounded,"
    maintains the older of two daughters of a department store buyer father and a kindergarten
    teacher-turned-producer mother. Yet, her life changed when she landed the role of Becca
    Thatcher at 13, on the series Life Goes On, and began on-set schooling. "It was hard; I
    was treated a little differently when I went back to school to visit old friends," she admits.

    Happily, college is an equalizer. "What I do is no big deal," says Martin, who deferred her
    studies twice before, as a freshman, when she starred in the title role on the series Christy
    as a young schoolteacher, and as a sophomore, when she starred as psychology
    student/intern Kathy Goodman on NBC's Crisis Center. While she must do so again, she
    affirms, "I'm in school for the love of it, and I feel no pressure to get straight A's. Show
    business is such a roller-coaster life. I'd like to have my degree and a lot of options."

    Martin's television movie credits include Her Hidden Truth, A Daughter's Courage, If
    Someone Had Known, Breaking Free, The Face on the Milk Carton, Her Last Chance,
    Secret Witness, A Friend to Die For, Hidden in Silence, NBC's Blue Heaven and the
    upcoming About Sarah. She guest-starred on such series as thirtysomething and The
    Tracy Ullman Show and had a recurring role on The Hogan Family. Her feature-film credits
    include Jumpin' Jack Flash, Troop Beverly Hills, Matinee and the animated The Goofy
    Movie (as the voice of Goofy's girlfriend).

    In her off-hours, Martin, who someday hopes to open a photo gallery in New York, hones
    her photographic skills. She also enjoys frequenting museums, watching Saturday morning
    cartoons, dancing and traveling. Her birthday is October 16.

    Emmy-nominated actress Laura Innes stepped into a recurring role as Dr. Kerry Weaver
    during the second season of ER and became a series regular during the third season. In
    addition to the 1997 Emmy nomination for her portrayal of the fiercely independent Dr.
    Weaver, Innes also received two nominations for a Viewers for Quality Television Award as
    Best Supporting Actress.

    Before joining television's top-rated series, Innes was perhaps best known for her comic
    turn as Bunny, the promiscuous but sweet ex-wife of Lowell (Thomas Hayden Church) on
    NBC's Wings.

    One of six children, Innes was born in Pontiac, Michigan, and raised in Birmingham,
    Michigan. She remembers her father, a college English instructor, taking the family to the
    famous Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario when she was small. It was there that
    she got her first taste of professional theater and decided to follow her father's advice to "do
    what you love."

    After graduating from high school, Innes attended Northwestern University where she
    earned a bachelor's degree in theater. Work in Chicago theater followed, including a role at
    the renowned Goodman Theater, playing Stella opposite John Malkovich in A Streetcar
    Named Desire. She continued working in Chicago for four years and originated the lead
    role of Glenna in David Mamet's Edmund before traveling with the production to New York
    City.

    Innes' other theater credits include Two Shakespearean Actors opposite Eric Stoltz at
    Lincoln Center, Our Town opposite Campbell Scott at the Seattle Repertory Theater, and
    Three Sisters at the La Jolla Playhouse opposite Nancy Travis, Phoebe Cates and Jon
    Lovitz.

    She has guest-starred on television series such as My So-Called Life, Party of Five and
    Brooklyn Bridge, and appeared in the Emmy Award-winning cable movie And the Band
    Played On. Innes also starred in the comedy series Louis, starring comedian Louis
    Anderson.

    Recently, Innes was seen on the big screen co-starring with Téa Leoni, Morgan Freeman
    and Vanessa Redgrave in the hit action-adventure film Deep Impact, which was directed by
    former ER producer/director Mimi Leder.

    Innes lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her birthday is August 16.

    For his role as Dr. John Carter on ER, Noah Wyle (pronounced "why-lee") has received
    three Emmy Award nominations, as well as two Golden Globe nominations for Best
    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series. Though the Dr. Carter viewers
    first met was inexperienced and often overwhelmed by the furious pace in the ER, Wyle
    reflects that the character's development mirrors his own acting career: "When the series
    first started, I was extremely nervous and bumbling and I was playing a character who was
    nervous and bumbling," Wyle explains. 'The second and third years, I got far more
    comfortable on the set. Now the character has matured and caught up to me and we're
    sort of going through the same life issues. I would be his patient today."

    Born in Hollywood, California, Wyle was raised there along with his six brothers and
    sisters. He developed a genuine interest in acting after his junior year in high school, when
    he participated in a theater-arts program at Northwestern University. After graduation from
    high school, he found a seedy apartment on Hollywood Boulevard and began studying with
    acting teacher Larry Moss.

    Wyle scored his first professional role in the NBC miniseries Blind Faith and followed that
    with his first feature film, Crooked Hearts, in which he played a son in a dysfunctional
    family. In 1990 he worked in another feature, There Goes My Baby.

    After appearing in several local plays in Los Angeles, he was cast in the box-office hit A
    Few Good Men, in which he played a Marine jeep driver who testified in court. He also
    appeared in the feature Swing Kids as a leader in the Hitler Youth, and in The Myth of
    Fingerprints with Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner. Additionally, he starred as Lancelot
    opposite Sheryl Lee in the TV movie Guinevere of Camelot and he guest-starred as a
    doctor on NBC's Friends.

    Wyle is the artistic producer of his own Los Angeles theater company, the Blank Theater
    Company, which stages an annual young playwrights festival and recently acquired
    Second Stage Theater in Hollywood, where the company's latest production, Hello, Again,
    received rave reviews.

    In his leisure time, Wyle enjoys basketball, traveling, photography and going to the
    movies. He lives in Los Angeles, and his birthday is June 4.