I am from the Bronx, New York City.  I became an NYPD police officer, working in the South Bronx, then a plainclothes detective working in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Hell's Kitchen, etc., then a five-year stint on Robbery/Homicide before becoming an undercover narcotics detective.  I gave the NYPD up for Lent and did went to college (didn't finish; hated college).  I found acting and theater quite by accident and wound up doing about seven years of regional theater (Shakespeare in the Park, the Public, Hartford Stage, Arena, the Goodman, etc.) before getting my SAG card, like all good NYC actors, on LAW AND ORDER.  I have had a successful career on television, as well as a supervising producer, producer, clearance supervisor and post-production supervisor.