Shemar Moore - African American Actors, Family and Personal Life

He was born as Shemar Franklin Moore to Sherrod Moore, an African American and Marilyn Wilson, who is of Canadian-French descent. The fact that his parents got married at a time when interracial marriages were not common makes Shemar feel very proud of their individuality.

His mother was a highly educated and strong minded woman who instilled in her son deep values like honesty, hard work and respect for all. As a young child he traveled all over the world with his mother after his parents separated.

Being biracial, he claims he received the best from both races. He had been exposed to various cultures around the world which helped to shape his character and personality.

He attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto and later went to the Santa Clara University where he majored in communications with a minor in Theater Arts.

He was an athletic youngster who played baseball in college. He was a Pitcher and Outfielder and dreamed of playing professional baseball. However, an injury put an end to this dream.

While in college he began modeling to earn some money. This coupled with his college theater experience motivated him to try his hand at a modeling and acting career. So he moved to New York City to pursue his dream.

Initially he struggled to make ends meet in New York as he could not get many modeling or acting assignments. He worked as a waiter at a coffee shop during nights while he tried to get modeling jobs by the day.

He once got a chance to appear in an advertisement for a shaving cream in ‘GQ’ Magazine. This was simply a coincidence as the first choice for the model for the ad was not available and Shemar was chosen only because he resembled the original model.

His appearance in the advertisement gave him the much needed exposure and soon he was invited for auditioning for parts in television shows. He hired an acting coach, Steven Anderson, to learn the nuances of acting and to polish his skills.

He was almost broke when in 1994 he auditioned for the part of Malcolm Winters in the television series ‘The Young and the Restless’. The competition was huge—there were 368 other actors auditioning for the same part.

He landed the role in the soap opera and appeared in the first episode in May 1994. His character Malcolm Winters became synonymous with Shemar and proved to be his launch pad into the world of television acting.

Starting from 1994, he remained with the show for eight years, and left the show in 2002. His portrayal of Winters had been much appreciated and he won several awards for it. He returned to the show in 2004 in a recurring role and appeared in 89 episodes.

He played an honest police detective in the television drama series ‘Birds of Prey’ in 2002. The show opened to a great start but the ratings fell with time. It was cancelled after 13 episodes.

In 2005, he was selected to play Derek Morgan, a Supervisory Special Agent, in the police procedural television program, ‘Criminal Minds’. He has till now appeared in around 200 episodes of the successful series.

Following his success as a television actor he also appeared in some films including ‘Butter’ (1998), ‘The Seat Filler’ (2004), and ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman’ (2005).

His convincing portrayal of the character Malcolm Winters in the soap opera ‘The Young and the Restless’ almost made him synonymous with Malcolm. This role established him as an actor and earned him great reviews and awards.

He won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Malcolm Winters in ‘The Young and the Restless’ in 2000. He is also the recipient of several Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series for the same show.

This heartthrob is yet to get married. He is very close to his mother who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). He appears in charity events for raising money for MS research.

This actor’s name ‘Shemar’ is made up of the first three letters of his parents’ names: Sherrod (father) and Marilyn (mother).