Michael Beach’s credits span the worlds of film, television and theater. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Beach has worked with acclaimed directors such as Tony Scott, James Cameron, Robert Altman and Mike Figgis. He currently stars in “Third Watch” as idealistic paramedic Monte “Doc” Parker. Referring to his character Beach says, “In the past, Doc has always tried to do the right thing. This season, I hope to explore more layers of his character, maybe complicate things a bit.”

In 1997, Beach was in the hit film “Soul Food” about a family dealing with death and survival (starring Vanessa Williams and Vivica A. Fox). Directed by George Tillman and produced by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. In what many consider to be his breakout film role, Beach starred in “Waiting to Exhale” opposite Angela Bassett and Whitney Houston. He also starred in the feature “A Family Thing” with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, “White Man’s Burden,” “True Romance,” “One False Move,” “Internal Affairs,” “Lean on Me” and “The Abyss.”

On television, Beach had a recurring role on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning drama “ER,” portraying Jeanie Boulet’s (Gloria Reuben) husband who had contracted the HIV virus and passed it on to her. Beach also starred opposite Don Cheadle in the cable movie “Rebound,” directed by his best friend, Eriq La Salle (“ER”). He has played the nephew to Cicely Tyson’s Scrooge in “Ms. Scrooge,” a cable network’s movie update of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” and starred opposite Lela Rochon in the TV movie “The Ruby Bridges Story,” a true depiction of desegregation in public schools. He will appear in the independent film “Crazy as Hell,” directed once again by La Salle, and the film “Asunder” with Blair Underwood.

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, Beach has been acting since high school when a friend talked him into auditioning for a school play. He has performed off-Broadway, in regional theater and in Los Angeles theater in such productions as “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Ascension Day.”

Beach’s birthday is October 30.