Martin was innate Jesse Lamont Watkins on January 18, 1969, in Rocky Mount, Virginia, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He is the youngest of 5 sons. Martin's parents, truck driver Jesse Reed Watkins and college counselor Virginithe Price, divorced once he was a infant. Ms. Price one of these days remarried & a boys adopted their stepfather's last name. Once Martwithin was in primary school, a personal resettled to Buffalo, New York, & the move was non an quick profits: Martin despised to speak because of his heavy Southern accent and was typically overcome using shyness. a caring teacher influenced him to join an when-school drama program & cast him when the pastor in The Golden Goose. Existence from either Virginia, a immature Martin played a character a single way he knew how else: as an divine Southern Baptist preacher. the work was a hit, & Martin emerged from either his eggshell.

A actor attended highschool at The Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, where he was voted "Most Talented" inside his senior class. He late enrolled within New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts Theater Program. Fallowing graduation, Martin toured a states using John Houseman's Acting Company. He appeared within ''Shakespeare's Rock-inside-Roles at a Actors Theater of Louisville and The Butcher's Daughter'' at the Cleveland Playhouse, and returned to Manhattan to perform in local theater, soap operas, and commercials. Locating that auditions, regional theater, & minor role were there is no way to trend lines himself, Martin waited tables at many eating house in a city. He was literally serving the pizza pie while his appearance in CBS's Guiding Light aired in the same eatery.

Martwithin manufactured his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, and then performed in The Government Inspector using Lainie Kazan. Patch made use of at a Moondance Diner, he met the late dramatist Jonathan Larson, who too worked on the eating place's staff. Inside 1996, Larson's musical Rent took the theater globe by storm, sustaining Martin in the a share of gay computer geek, Tom Collins. A Nineties upgrade of Puccini's La Bohème earned six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. Martin presently landed roles in Fox's short-lived 413 Hope Street & Eric Bross' independent film Restaurant (1998). ''Ally McBeal's creator, David E. Kelley, attended Rent's'' Broadway premiere and remembered Martin when the show needed a new boyfriend for Calista Flockhart's Ally. A actor's performance when Dr. Greg Butters in Ally McBeal caught David Duchovny's eye, who so cast Martaround as the baseball-swimming alien in a 1999 episode of The X-Files that he wrote and directed.

When however shooting Ally McBeal, Martin heard hearsay that actor Benjamin Bratt planned to leave the cast of Law & Order. Martin tried retired for the indicate years prior to & won the bit section of a car-radio stealer known as Earl the Hamster, however decided to hold off for a large part. Sustaining a chance presenting itself, Martin begged Law & Order producer Dick Wolf for Bratt's role. Wolf hoped to cast him, & upon hearing that CBS & Mongrel each offered Martin development deals, he gave a actor a a portion forgoing an audition.

Since 1999, he has played Det. Ed Green on the popular television series Law & Order, save for a brief hiatus at the end of the 2004–2005 season while he was filming the movie adaptation of Rent, for which he reprised the role of Tom Collins.

Filmography
The Christmas Carol (2004) (TV) .... Ghost of Christmas Present Year of Youth (2003) ''Burning Home of Love' (2002) .... Andre Anderson Law & Order (1990) TV Series .... Det. Ed Green (since 1999) Deep inside The Heart (1999) (TV) .... Don Williams Ally McBeal (1997) TV Series .... Dr. Greg Butters (1998) Eating house (1998) .... Quincy 413 Hope St. (1997) TV Series .... Antonio Collins (1997-1998)