Anthony Charles Edwards (born July 19, 1962) is an American actor and director. He is most widely known for his role as Dr. Mark Greene on the first eight seasons of ER, for which he received a Golden Globe award and six Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was nominated for four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards. Additionally, he has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Top Gun, Zodiac, Miracle Mile, Revenge of the Nerds, Planes, Northern Exposure and Designated Survivor.
Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika Kem Edwards Plack (née Weber), an artist/landscape painter, and Peter Edwards, an architect. His maternal grandfather was designer Kem Weber. He is of Irish descent. He has two older sisters, Heidi and Ann-Marie, and two older brothers, Peter and Jeffrey. Edwards was encouraged by his parents to attend college before pursuing his interest in acting. He received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England and studied theatre at University of Southern California; but by the age of nineteen was being offered enough acting work to enable him to leave college.