Daniel Sunjata

Daniel Sunjata (March 7, 2013)


Name: Daniel Sunjata (Condon). He uses his middle name professionally.

Chicago connection: Born in Evanston in 1971. Adopted at the age of 2 months and raised by parents Katherine (who died in 1996) and Bill Condon. He attended Mount Carmel High School in Chicago and was a linebacker for its football team, which took two state championships during his tenure. He originally thought of being an actor as a child after seeing the Goodman's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" but it wasn't until he attended Florida A&M University that he returned to his dream and began to take acting seriously. He later attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and finished his last year of undergrad at University of Southwestern Louisiana. This was followed by a master's degree in acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Career overview: He began his career in theater in the late 1990s in New York City. Notable early stage performances included Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at Lincoln Center in 1998 and at the Guthrie in Minnesota. Sunjata was a regular on the short-lived 2000 series "D.C." and the following year on the soap opera "All My Children." For four years he had a recurring part on "Law & Order: SVU" and during that time he made numerous television and film appearances (including a memorable turn as poet Langston Hughes in the indie feature "Brother to Brother."). His role as the baseball player who comes out in 2003's Tony-Award-winning play "Take Me Out" (for which he was Tony-nominated brought him critical acclaim and gave his career momentum. "In terms of acting purely, the craft itself, that was my most profound experience as an actor," he recalled.

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Sunjata is perhaps best known to audiences for his role as the heartthrob Franco Rivera in the FX series "Rescue Me," in which he co-starred with Denis O'Leary, and for his role as Nurse Eli on "Grey's Anatomy." The actor has had supporting film roles in "Noel," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," "The Dark Knight Rises" and others. He was recently featured in the pilot for "Graceland" and is starring in the darkly comedic series as an undercover narcotics agent for the USA Network slated to premiere this year. Sunjata can be seen as the handsome dramaturge involved with Debra Messing's character in the NBC musical drama "Smash."

Q: You've done so many different kinds of roles between your film, stage and TV work; I'm curious what character you most often get recognized for?

A: Believe it or not, it was one episode of "Sex and the City." Not because my performance was so amazing. I was the unwitting beneficiary of circumstances in that particular case. That was the first episode after 9/11 and it was also the season that (the show) had finally truly hit. I play a sailor during Fleet Week — I flirt with getting together with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker's character), but then I make a disparaging remark about New York and she decides to date "the city" instead of me (laughs).

Q: Who are you most often mistaken for?

A: Adam Rodriguez. People think I'm him from "CSI" — I know Adam and he's a great guy and has a great career and sometimes I think, "I wish I was Adam!"


A: I'd have to say Meryl Streep. I'm a huge fan of Denzel Washington of course. I love Jeffrey Wright — I think he's underrated and extremely talented. Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando. There are so many young talented actors today whose work I respect and admire — Ryan Gosling is probably primary among them. I take inspiration from so many amazing actors.

Q: What did you learn from working with someone as esteemed as Meryl Streep on "The Devil Wears Prada?"

A: She had this very interesting way of staying in character in between takes but still giving you a piece of herself as Meryl. There was always behind her eyes Miranda Priestly — she was always kind of hovering just underneath the surface. Watching her mind work was an amazing thing to see. It was nerve-racking to act with her. Watching Anthony Hopkins work on "Bad Company" was also very interesting. He approached material with less gravitas and more pure entertainment value. I remember that I and the other younger actors had cornered him during lunch, and we all had questions for him of course. I asked him how he constructs the arcs of his characters since it's all shot out of sequence and he (imitating Hopkins' distinctive English accent) just said, "There is no arc" and walked away. I was like, "What?! There's no arc!" (laughs).

Q: What's an archetypical character role you have played often?

A: I've played a baseball player a few times, but in my career I've been blessed to have played a wide range of characters. I played a serial rapist on "Lie to Me" — about the worst human being you could ever imagine — and I've played Langston Hughes the poet. I've played a firefighter and a fashion designer. I certainly don't feel like I've been the victim of typecasting.


A: I wouldn't mind doing a biopic about the life of Harry Belafonte some day.

Q: Most unusual character/costume/location/prop?

A: It's a tie between the bunker gear on "Rescue Me" that we had to wear in the New York City sweltering heat or the costumes for "Cyrano De Bergerac" on Broadway. It was a fight between me and my costumes to get the acting out (laughs).

Q: Has being from Chicago helped in your career?

A: I think Chicago people are very special people, and the Midwest's confluence of East Coast-meets-Midwest sensibilities had to, on a formative level ,inform me as an artist and an actor. In that sense, it had to have helped me.

Q: What do you miss most about Chicago?

A: Besides everything? (laughs) I do still have lots of family in the Chicago area, and I come back to the city as often as I possibly can.