Ethan Phillips

Ethan Phillips is an American actor best known for his roles in Star Trek: Voyager and Benson.

Biography
Phillips was born on February 8, 1955, in Garden City, Long Island, New York. He was raised in Garden City as the only boy of six children. His father was the owner of a local steakhouse that was successful for its time. Phillips graduated from Boston University with a degree in English Literature and then received a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Cornell University. Afterwards, he began a career performing in Broadway and off-Broadway plays at many different theatres.

Over the following fifteen years, Phillips performed in numerous plays in New York. His regional theater credits include leading roles for the Old Globe Theatre, the Alaska Repertory Theatre, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Center Stage, the Westport Country Playhouse, the Boston Shakespeare Company, Actors Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Co., and the McCarter Theatre. Phillips was a member of Robert Redford's organization, The Sundance Playwrights Conference, for six summers. There, he developed his own plays, including Penguin Blues, Angels in America, The Kentucky Cycle, and Miss Evers' Boys. Based on his experience there, he helped found First Stage, a playwright development laboratory in Los Angeles, California.

In addition to theater, Phillips appeared in over thirty films, beginning with a small role in Ragtime. His film credits include For Richer or Poorer, Jeffrey, The Shadow, Wagons East!, The Man Without a Face, Green Card, Lean on Me, Critters, Bloodhounds of Broadway, The Island, Bad Santa, and The Babysitters. Phillips also acted on television. In 1980, he joined the cast of the hit sitcom Benson, portraying the role of Pete Downey. He also made guest-star appearances on TV shows and films, including Pushing Daisies, Bones, Eli Stone, Criminal Minds, Numb3rs, Las Vegas, L.A. Law, JAG, Law & Order, Arrested Development, Boston Legal, Castle, Rizzoli & Isles, The Good Guys, and The Mentalist.

In 1990, Phillips began his prolific Star Trek career by appearing as the Ferengi character, Dr. Farek, in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He then went on to portray Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager from 1995. He stayed with the series throughout its entire seven-season run. He also made a cameo appearance as a holographic nightclub maître d' in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact, and appeared as a Ferengi pirate captain on an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Phillips reprised his role as Neelix alongside his fellow Star Trek: Voyager cast-mates in Star Trek Online ' s 2014 expansion Delta Rising.

On Criminal Minds
Phillips portrayed schizophrenic serial-turned-spree killer Marvin Doyle, who committed several vigilante murders in the Season One episode A Real Rain.

Filmography
For a full filmography, see here.