Wayne Knight

WAYNE KNIGHT

Date of Birth: August 7, 1955

Versatile actor Wayne Knight has played a wide variety of characters in a career that has seen successful turns on the stage, big screen and television. Born in Cartersville, Georgia, the character actor began his journey after dropping out of the University of Georgia to join The Barter Theatre Company. It was here that Knight polished his craft and prepared himself for professional acting.

After gaining his union card, Knight moved to New York City to make his Broadway debut in the award winning play Gemini. He has since appeared in many other Broadway productions including Mastergate, Art and Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate.

Knight began his film career with an uncredited part in 1979's The Wanderers. He followed with roles in high-profile features such as Dirty Dancing, Born on the Fourth of July, and JFK. In 1992 Knight starred in Paul Verhoeven’s classic noir thriller Basic Instinct as John Correli. His performance in Basic Instinct garnered much praise and helped land him a role in Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park. He has since been seen in To Die For (1995) with Nicole Kidman, Space Jam (1996) opposite basketball great Michael Jordan, and Rat Race (2001) with Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr.

Despite his success on the big screen, Knight might always be remembered for the characters he played on television. His role in as Newman in NBC's hit comedy Seinfeld earned the actor legions of fans over the series' eight-year run. Knight also had a recurring role as Officer Don Orville on NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun, played Andrew Batten on the 2009 series Woke Up Dead and from 2010 to 2011 portrayed Rick on the hit TV series Hot in Cleveland alongside Betty White.

Knight has also had a successful career providing voices for animated television series and films such as Hercules (1997), Tarzan (1999) as Al the toy collector in Toy Story 2 (1999) and .