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Edi Gathegi
Gathegi in January 2009
Born	Edi Mue Gathegi[1] March 10, 1979 (1979-03-10) (age 30) Nairobi, Kenya
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Edi Mue Gathegi (born March 10, 1979) is an American film, stage and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his recurring character Dr. Jeffrey Cole (aka "Big Love") in the television series House, as Cheese in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone and as Laurent in the films Twilight and New Moon.

Early life

Though born in Nairobi, Kenya, Gathegi grew up in Albany, California.^[2] As an undeclared undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was more interested in playing basketball and was good at it, right until he injured his knee; This plunged him into a depression so he took up an acting class as an "easy course". That is where he discovered his love for acting.^[2] Afterwards, he attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University for a graduate school acting program.^[2] Gathegi's career began in theatre,^[3] and his stage credits include Two Trains Running at the Old Globe Theatre, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Cyrano de Bergerac, among others.^[1]

Career

Gathegi's first professional role was the Haitian Cabbie in the 2006 film Crank. Though he had originally auditioned for the role of Kaylo, the producers gave the role to Efren Ramirez and instead offered Gathegi an appearance as the Haitian Cabbie.^[3] He was dubious at first about performing a Haitian accent, but was coached by his Haitian friend.^[3] In 2007, after guest-starring on Lincoln Heights and Veronica Mars, Gathegi went on to star as Bodie in Death Sentence, Darudi in The Fifth Patient and Cheese in Gone Baby Gone. He later had a recurring role as Mormon intern Dr. Jeffrey Cole on the television medical drama House, and guest-starred on CSI: Miami, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Life on Mars in 2008 before being cast as Laurent in Twilight. When Gathegi first auditioned for the 2008 film, adapted from the same-titled first book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, he had not heard of the series and was not aware that his character was a vampire.^[4] He now has read the whole series and calls himself a hardcore fan.^[4][5]

Gathegi appeared as Deputy Martin in 2009's My Bloody Valentine 3D.^[2] He plans to star in a spring Broadway production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone and also returned to his role as Laurent in Twilight sequel New Moon.^[6]

Filmography

References

External links

• Edi Gathegi at the Internet Movie Database