Edi Gathegi on AllMovie

Kenyan-born actor Edi Gathegi grew up in California, close to the bright lights of Hollywood, but his own interest in the spotlight would take years to germinate. When Gathegi enrolled in classes at UC Santa Barbara, he was primarily interested in basketball, but when a knee injury put a hold on his athletic interests, he signed up for an acting class on a whim. He was amazed to discover an instant love for the craft and soon decided to pursue acting full force, enrolling at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University to learn all he could. He soon began a professional acting career in theater, appearing in several classics like Cyrano de Bergerac and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He eventually made his screen debut with the role of the Hatian cab driver in the 2006 film Crank, a role that led to a second career on the screen for Gathegi, appearing in movies like 2007's Gone Baby Gone and on the medical drama House, where he played Dr. Jeffrey Cole. In 2008, the actor took on the small but memorable part of Laurent in the highly anticipated film adaptation of the young-adult novel Twilight.