Edi Mue Gathegi is a Kenyan-American

Kenyan American

Kenyan Americans are Americans of Kenyan descent. There are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Kenyan Americans and least 50% of all Kenyan American citizens are based in Washington, D.C., with other population concentrations in Texas, California, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, New York and North...

 film, stage and television actor. He is best known for his recurring character Dr. Jeffrey Cole (aka "Big Love") in the television series House

House (TV series)

House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

, as Cheese in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...

and as Laurent in the films Twilight

Twilight (2008 film)

Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...

, its sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Darwin

Darwin (comics)

Darwin is a mutant character in the Marvel Comics Universe. He first appeared in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2, and was created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Pete Woods. Darwin was one of the "Missing X-Men"...

 in the new film X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics starring the X-Men.-Publication history:The original series was an eight-issue limited series. It began in September 2006 and ended in April 2007. It was written by Jeff Parker and penciled by Roger Cruz...

.

Early life

Born in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

, Kenya, Gathegi grew up in Albany

Albany, California

Albany is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 18,539 at the 2010 census.-History:In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their community...

, California. As an undeclared undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

, he was more interested in playing basketball and was good at it, 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. Afterwards, studied at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts

Tisch School of the Arts

Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....

, graduating in 2005. Gathegi's career began in theatre, and his stage credits include Two Trains Running

Two Trains Running

Two Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...

at the Old Globe Theatre

Old Globe Theatre

The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons...

, As You Like It

As You Like It

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...

, Twelfth Night, Othello

Othello

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

, A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

, and Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac (play)

Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....

, among others.

Career

Gathegi's first professional role was the Haitian Cabbie in the 2006 film Crank

Crank (film)

Crank is a 2006 American comedy movie, written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, and Dwight Yoakam...

. Though he had originally auditioned for the role of Kaylo, the producers gave the role to Efren Ramirez

Efren Ramirez

-Early life:Ramirez was born in Los Angeles, California of Spanish and Salvadoran descent. He has three brothers, one of whom is his identical twin. Ramirez bought his parents a house with his payment from Napoleon Dynamite .-Career:...

 and instead offered Gathegi an appearance as the Haitian Cabbie. He was dubious at first about performing a Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an accent, but was coached by a Haitian friend. In 2007, after guest-starring on Lincoln Heights

Lincoln Heights (TV series)

Lincoln Heights is an American drama television series about Eddie Sutton, a Mission Vista police officer who moves his family back to his old neighborhood, Lincoln Heights, to start a new life and to help out his old neighborhood...

and Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...

, Gathegi went on to star as Bodie in Death Sentence

Death Sentence

Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...

, Darudi in The Fifth Patient

The Fifth Patient

The Fifth Patient is a 2007 American thriller film written and directed by Amir Mann. The film stars Nick Chinlund as John Reilly, an American national who finds himself in an African hospital where, he learns, he has spent the last two years due to a head injury. He remembers nothing of his past...

and Cheese in Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...

. He later had a recurring role as Mormon

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

 intern Dr. Jeffrey Cole on the television medical drama House

House (TV series)

House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

, his character was often mocked for his religious beliefs by Dr. House

Gregory House

Gregory House, M.D., or simply referred to as House, is a fictional antihero and title character of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. He is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where he leads a team of diagnosticians...

, who himself is an Atheist. He also guest-starred on CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami

CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

and Life on Mars

Life on Mars (TV series)

Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural....

in 2008 before being cast as Laurent in Twilight

Twilight (2008 film)

Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...

. When Gathegi first auditioned for the 2008 film, adapted from the same-titled first book

Twilight (novel)

Twilight is a young-adult vampire-romance novel by author Stephenie Meyer. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire,...

 in Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer is an American author known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into 37 different languages...

's Twilight series, he had not heard of the series and was not aware that his character was a vampire. He now has read the whole series and calls himself a hardcore fan.
He will play A-Guy in Son of Magnet.
He portrays Eddie Willers in Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged (film)

Atlas Shrugged: Part I is a 2011 American film adaptation of part of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, intended as the first film of a trilogy encompassing the entire book. After various treatments and proposals floundered for nearly 40 years, investor John Aglialoro initiated production in...

(2011), based on Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

's novel of the same name

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...

.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Crank Crank (film) Crank is a 2006 American comedy movie, written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, and Dwight Yoakam...	Haitian Cabbie
2007	House House (TV series) House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...	Dr. Jeffrey Cole	TV series
2007	Gone Baby Gone Gone Baby Gone Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...	Cheese
2007	The Fifth Patient The Fifth Patient The Fifth Patient is a 2007 American thriller film written and directed by Amir Mann. The film stars Nick Chinlund as John Reilly, an American national who finds himself in an African hospital where, he learns, he has spent the last two years due to a head injury. He remembers nothing of his past...	Darudi
2007	Death Sentence	Bodie
2007	Lincoln Heights Lincoln Heights (TV series) Lincoln Heights is an American drama television series about Eddie Sutton, a Mission Vista police officer who moves his family back to his old neighborhood, Lincoln Heights, to start a new life and to help out his old neighborhood...	Boa	TV series
2008	Twilight Twilight (2008 film) Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...	Laurent
2009	My Bloody Valentine 3D	Deputy Martin
2009	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	Laurent
2011	X-Men: First Class X-Men: First Class X-Men: First Class is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics starring the X-Men.-Publication history:The original series was an eight-issue limited series. It began in September 2006 and ended in April 2007. It was written by Jeff Parker and penciled by Roger Cruz...	Armando Muñoz / Darwin Darwin (comics) Darwin is a mutant character in the Marvel Comics Universe. He first appeared in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2, and was created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Pete Woods. Darwin was one of the "Missing X-Men"...
2011	Atlas Shrugged Atlas Shrugged (film) Atlas Shrugged: Part I is a 2011 American film adaptation of part of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, intended as the first film of a trilogy encompassing the entire book. After various treatments and proposals floundered for nearly 40 years, investor John Aglialoro initiated production in...	Eddie Willers
2011	Nikita Nikita (TV series) La Femme Nikita is a Canadian action/drama television series based on the French film Nikita by Luc Besson. The series was co-produced by Jay Firestone of Fireworks Entertainment and Warner Brothers. It was adapted for television by Joel Surnow...	Kalume Ungara	Episode: "Girl's Best Friend"

External links