Background
He is the son of poet Sharon Olds. In 1992, Olds was hired by Dick Wolf for an episode of Law & Order, in which Olds played an ambitious student who murders his father.
He is the son of poet Sharon Olds. In 1992, Olds was hired by Dick Wolf for an episode of Law & Order, in which Olds played an ambitious student who murders his father.
Yale University.
Olds began acting at age 15 at The Public Theater in New York, in a performance of Measure for Measure in 1987. Soon after, he was cast in 14 Going on 30 (American Broadcasting Company, 1988), a two-part Disney Sunday Movie with an age-shifting plot, similar to Big. In 1993, Olds made his Broadway debut with the drama Any Given Day, a prequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Subject Was Roses.
Olds took time off from Yale University to perform in the show.
Soon after, Olds was cast in the Penny Marshall-produced film Calendar Girl, a nostalgic take on the teen road trip. Back at Yale, Olds starred in and directed the Shakespearean drama Richard II, to positive notices.
More work followed, with a supporting role in John Frankenheimer"s Civil War prison camp miniseries Andersonville (TNT), and work on Party of Five (Fox), Sisters (National Broadcasting Company), and a well-reviewed appearance in Charmed. Soon after, Olds took a supporting role opposite Billy Crudup in the track and field-themed Steve Prefontaine biopic Without Limits.
(television series). The actor was hired to play Mason Scott, a privileged idealist with a pragmatic roommate (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and a flaky twin sister (Jacinda Barrett).
Olds then went onto playing a sexually deluded actor in the independent drama Urbania (2000). Other credits include East-Ring, Commander in Chief, Six Feet Under, Computer Society of India: Crime Scene Investigation, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Cold Case, Numb3rs, Medium, Franklin & Bash and Private Practice. In 2007, Olds filmed two television pilots, Conspiracy (Lifetime), and Winters (National Broadcasting Company).
The latter was executive produced by David Shore, creator of House.
Recent work includes the voiceover work for psychopath video game character Paul Carson in Capcom"s video game Dead Rising, National Broadcasting Company"s The Event, and National Broadcasting Company"s Heroes where he plays a shape-shifted version of Sylar. Olds can be seen in the Columbia Broadcasting System dramas Criminal Minds and The Mentalist, and in the Bruce Willis action film Surrogates, in which he plays a cyborg cop.
Olds has a recurring part on Home Box Office"s Boardwalk Empire, and Columbia Broadcasting System"s NCIS: New Orleans. Olds writes screenplays and freelance journalism for Condé Nast Publications and salon.com.
He has written about flying after 9/11 and plastic surgery in Los Los Angeles
In 2000, Law & Order producer Dick Wolf, who"d worked with Olds before, offered him the lead role in The World Bank"s political drama, District of Columbia In the same year, Olds starred in the Los Angeles stage production of the two-person play Tryst, at the Black Dahlia Theater, which got him rave reviews, 6 nominations, and 2 wins for Best Actor, from Los Angeles Weekly Theater Awards and the LADCC.