Eric Christian Olsen Biography

Eric Christian Olsen (born May 31, 1977) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Detective Marty Deeks on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Early life

Olsen was born in Eugene, Oregon, the son of Jeanne, a non-denominational chaplain, and Paul V. Olsen, a professor of English and head track and cross country coach of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He spent most of his childhood in Bettendorf, Iowa and attended Bettendorf Middle and High School, where he pursued interests such as sports and Japanese. In addition to many local theatre performances, Olsen trained in improv with ComedySportz Quad Cities and later joined the cast.

Career

In 1999, Olsen went to California with $500 in his pocket. In his first week he scored a guest role on the ABC-TV series High Incident, produced by Steven Spielberg. He found early critical acclaim with an Emmy submitted portrayal of a dying burn victim on NBC's ER. His next role was a small one in HBO's Black Cat Run. The casting agent on ER called the producers of a new show and Eric soon landed a starring role in the Fox TV series Get Real, playing Cameron Green. The series lasted for a year before Eric made his transition onto the big screen when he played Ben Affleck's gunner in Pearl Harbor, that was quickly followed by a leading role as Austin "The Cocky Blond Guy" in the teen send up feature film Not Another Teen Movie.

One day, after a bad audition, Olsen bought a surfboard and taught himself to surf and soon fell in love with the sport. In Local Boys, he got the chance to show off the surfing skills. Olsen next played Jake in the teen comedy The Hot Chick. He then got surprisingly rave reviews in a largely panned movie by playing Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, the prequel to the hit movie Dumb and Dumber. Olsen followed that up by playing opposite Chris Evans for a second time in Cellular. He starred in the yet to be released Mojave and then joined the final season of Fox's Tru Calling. He claimed three highly contrasting roles in 2006 and 2007 with the release of Beerfest, License to Wed and another praised performance in Zach Braff's The Last Kiss.

Olsen co-starred as Sully in the Fox sitcom The Loop. He recently graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in Child Psychology under Liberal Arts. Olsen had four other projects in 2008 and continues to reside in Malibu, CA.

Olsen appeared on Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's streaming video website Funny or Die, with a small series of segments featuring a character called Perry Hilton, an obvious parody of Paris Hilton. He starred in the 2011 science-fiction horror film The Thing.

Olsen portrays Detective Marty Deeks on the CBS show NCIS: Los Angeles. His character appeared in two episodes of season one before joining the cast as a series regular in the second season.

Personal life

Olsen has been in a relationship with actress Sarah Wright since 2007 and they became engaged in October 2011. They were married near Jackson Hole, Wyoming on June 23, 2012. Their first child, a boy, Wyatt Oliver, was born August 16, 2013.

Olsen's brother/stunt double, David Paul Olsen, is engaged to Daniela Ruah(Olsen's NCIS: Los Angeles co-star).

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction	Adam	Season 1 Episode 2: "The Viewing, The Subway, Kid in the Closet, Justice is Served & The Tractor"
1998	Black Cat Run	Gas Station Attendant	TV movie (as Eric Olsen)
1999	Arthur's Quest	Artie/King Arthur	TV movie
1999	Turks	Kevin Williams	Episode: "Friends & Strangers"
1999	ER	Travis Mitchell	Episode: "Responsible Parties"
1999"2000	Get Real	Cameron Green	22 episodes (main cast)
2000	Lessons Learned	Jack	TV movie
2001	Mean People Suck	Nick	Short
2001	Ruling Class	Bill Olszewski	TV movie
2001	Pearl Harbor	Gunner
2001	Smallville	Young Harry Bollston	Episode: "Hourglass"
2001	Not Another Teen Movie	Austin
2002	Local Boys	Randy Dobson
2002	The Hot Chick	Jake
2002	24	John Mason	Episode: "Day 2: 2:00 p.m."3:00 p.m."
2003	Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd	Lloyd Christmas
2004	Cellular	Chad Thompson
2004	Death Valley	Josh	{original title: Mojave}
2005	Tru Calling	Jensen Ritchie	5 Episodes
2006	Beerfest	Gunther
2006	The Last Kiss	Kenny
2006"2007	The Loop	Sully Sullivan	17 episodes (main cast)
2007	License to Wed	Carlisle
2007	The Comebacks	Foreign Exchange Student
2007	The Hill	Matt O'Brien	TV movie
2007	Write & Wrong	Jason 'Krueger' Langdon	TV movie
2008	Sunshine Cleaning	Randy Clever
2008	Eagle Eye	Craig Bolston
2008"2009	Brothers & Sisters	Kyle DeWitt	6 episodes
2009	Fired Up	Nick Brady
2009	The Six Wives of Henry Lefay	Lloyd Wiggins
2009"2010	Community	Vaughn Miller	4 episodes
2010	The Back-Up Plan	Clive Bennett
2010-2012	LEGO Hero Factory	William Furno	Trials of Furno - Breakout Part 2
2010"present	NCIS: Los Angeles	Marty Deeks	(recurring, first season; main cast, season 2")
2010-present	Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil	Wade	Recurring character
2011	The Thing	Adam Finch
2012	Celeste and Jesse Forever	Steve Tucker