Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee, Dylan McDermott, was born Mark Anthony McDermott in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Diane (Marino) and Richard McDermott.
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McDermott’s father’s third wife was playwright Eve Ensler, who adopted McDermott when he was 15 and she was 23.
She later divorced his father. Ensler, with whom McDermott has remained close, encouraged him to pursue an acting career, and began writing roles for him into her plays.
After Ensler suffered a miscarriage, he took the name Dylan, the name planned for her unborn child.
He then graduated from the Jesuit-run Fordham University with a BA in 1983, as well as studying under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.
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McDermott is known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the legal drama series The Practice, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
McDermott is also known for his roles in four seasons (first, second, eighth and ninth) of the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Murder House, Asylum, Apocalypse, and 1984 portraying Ben Harmon, Johnny Morgan and Bruce, respectively.
He also starred as narcotics crime lord Richard Wheatley on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime; Lt. Carter Shaw on the TNT series Dark Blue; in two short-lived CBS dramas, Hostages and Stalker; and in the 1994 remake of the film Miracle on 34th Street. In 2022, he joined FBI: Most Wanted as the new lead, replacing the departing Julian McMahon.
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