Lee Tergesen

Biography: Lee Allen Tergesen was born on July 8, 1965 in Ivoryton, Connecticut. Lee graduated from Valley Regional High School in Deep River, Connecticut, and was 18 when he moved to New York to become an actor. After graduating from the American Theatre and Dramatic Academy in 1985, Lee did a lot of stage work, and upon finding there was no money in it, he decided to grow his hair long to counteract the straight-arrow type of roles his agents thought he should try for. During this time, Lee primarily worked at the Empire Diner where he met Tom Fontana (the award-winning producer and writer whose work includes "Oz," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "St. Elsewhere"), who lived around the corner from the diner.

In 1990, Lee accompanied Fontana to Los Angeles to help him move. While dining at a restaurant on the day after arriving in L.A., a casting director and friend of Fontana's asked Lee if he was an actor. It was this encounter that led to Lee being cast in the surfing-action-detective movie "Point Break”.

Lee subsequently appeared as Terry, the cameraman, in "Wayne's World" and became part of two major pieces of pop culture: The "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene and uttering the "I love you, man" line that was adopted for Budweiser commercials.

In 1993, he began a series of recurring appearances in Tom Fontana's "Homicide: Life on the Street." He then was a series regular in 1994-1997 as Chett, the bullying older brother, in "Weird Science."

In 1997, Lee went East for an episode of "Homicide" and met up with Tom Fontana. They discussed a prison drama that Fontana was producing for HBO. Soon, Lee was cast as a central character in "Oz," playing Tobias Beecher, a part Fontana wrote for him.

After "Oz" ended its run in 2003, Lee had numerous guest appearances and/or supporting roles in TV shows and movies.

From October 2004 into January 2005, following his desire to return to theatre, he appeared in an off-Broadway play, "The Foreigner," a comedy with Matthew Broderick.

Most recently, Lee can be seen in a new TV series, "Wanted," which begin airing July 31, 2005, on TNT and has also appeared on several episodes of “Desperate Housewives” in spring 2006. His most recent film is as a biker in the horror/slasher film, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”.… Expand