Seth Peterson on AllMovie

Harlem-born actor Seth Peterson credits the acting process with helping him turn his life around at a time when it began to appear as if he was heading down a dark path -- the skill needed to explore the motivations and actions of his characters eventually providing him with marked insight into his own life. As a child, young Peterson traveled frequently from coast to coast. The son of a high-school math teacher and an Echo Park theater actress who eventually abandoned her craft to become a paralegal, Peterson enjoyed his time in California so much that he decided to return there after high school. A die-hard method actor who supported himself by working in the human resources department of a bank by day, Peterson later took a cold-reading class that gave him a new perspective on his craft. In the 1990s, he began ascending the ranks with appearances on such shows as Beverly Hills 90210, Clueless, and Profiler.

Subsequent roles in such films as Godzilla and Can't Hardly Wait warmed Peterson to the idea of becoming a feature actor, and in 1999 he joined the cast of the television drama Providence. Cast as the son of a former plastic surgeon struggling to keep her family together, Peterson remained with the show until it ran its course in 2002. In the following years, Peterson became increasingly active in the independent film scene, his role as the vengeful partner of a man who is killed in a chilling act of violence in Hate Crime preceding memorable performances on HBO's gritty Western series Deadwood and the long-running CBS crime drama CSI.

While increasingly singled out for his notable screen presence, Peterson sites his performance as Billy Bibbett in a Garden Pavilion performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as one of his most fulfilling roles.