Eric Christian Olsen (born May 31, 1977) is an American actor. He currently portrays 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 has a older brother David Paul Olsen who married to his co-star Daniela Ruah.
He spent most of his childhood in Bettendorf, Iowa and attended Bettendorf Middle and High School, where he pursued such interests 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. Interestingly, Deeks shares a love of surfing similar that to Olsen's.
Personal life[]
Olsen has been in a relationship with actress Sarah Wright since 2007 and they got engaged October 2011. They were married near Jackson Hole, Wyoming on June 23, 2012. Eric and Sarah have son Wyatt Oliver Olsen was born on August 16 2013 and their second child, a daughter, Esmé Olivia Olsen was born on August 9, 2016.