Paul Young of Desperate Housewives

Background:

“As an actor if you're doing a lot of serious stuff, you want to do something funny. If you're doing a lot of funny stuff, you want to do something serious and meaningful.” Mark Moses

American character actor hailed form New York City Mark Moses is most well-known to television audience as the mysterious Paul Young on the ABC hit series “Desperate Housewives” (2004-2007). During his successful tenure on the show, he co-won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and became a household name. Prior to landing the coveted role, Moses has been a TV guest veteran with varied list of credits include recurring roles on NBC's “Grand” (1990) and “Ally McBeal” (2001-2002) and one-episodic roles on such popular shows as “Party of Five,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Chicago Hope,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “JAG,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “The Practice,” “ER,” 7th Heaven,” “The West Wing,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “NYPD Blue.” He also played the regular role of Matt Parker on the NBC sitcom “The Single Guy” (1995-1996) and acted in several movies, including Oliver Stone's “Platoon” (1986), “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989) and “The Doors” (1991), Lance Dickson's “Hollywood Heartbreak” (1990), Ronald F. Maxwell's “Gettysburg” (1993), Mimi Leder 's “Deep Impact” (1998), “James Dean” (2001, TV), Sean McNamara's “Race to Space” (2002), and Brett Ratner's “Red Dragon” (2002) and “After the Sunset” (2004). With his new-found fame, the former house painter enjoyed a stellar supporting role as Emily Procter's bad-tempered husband on the Martin Lawrence hit comedy “Big Momma’s House 2” (2006).

The gangling, thin Moses is the husband of actress Annie LaRussa. The couple has a 15-year-old son, Walker Moses. His brother, Burke Moses, is an actor and singer.

Poker Fan

Childhood and Family:

Mark W. Moses was born on February 24, 1958, in New York, New York. He has a younger brother named Burke Moses (born on December 10, 1959). Mark studied English at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York and later graduated with a BFA in drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Mark is married to actress Annie LaRussa. They have one son together, Walker Moses (born in 1993). When “Desperate Housewives” is not filming, Mark lives with his family in Evanston, IL.

An avid poker player, Mark has appeared on Celebrity Poker Showdown.

Big Momma’s House 2

Career:

New York native Mark Moses departed college to try his hand in acting. He appeared in summer stock productions and toured Europe while moonlighting as house painter. Getting his first stage experience along side Peter Gallagher in a production of “Another Country” at Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT, he went on to act in regional theater and on and off-Broadway in New York City, and collected early TV credits with recurring roles on the daytime soap serials “One Life to Live” (ABC), “Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns” (both CBS). His first major prime time role arrived in 1985 when he was cast as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on the historical miniseries “North and South” (ABC), which starred Patrick Swayze and James Read.

Thanks to his fine acting opposite Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon in “Slab Boys,” his first Broadway performance, Moses was put under the radar of casting directors and landed a spot in the Oliver Stone high-profile war film “Platoon” (1986), starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen, among others. In his big screen debut, the actor made impression as the feckless Lieutenant Wolfe. His subsequent roles were as Win Hockings in the disappointment “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1987) for director Ridley Scott, and an optimistic doctor on the Tom Cruise vehicle “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989), a second project with Oliver Stone. In between, he made two TV films: “The Silence at Bethany” (1988) and “The Tracker” (1988), a Western costarring Kris Kristofferson and Scott Wilson.

Moses got his first starring role in features in 1990 when Lance Dickson cast him as Abbey in the independent film “Hollywood Heartbreak,” along side Ron Karabatsos. Guest roles on such TV shows as “Matlock” and “The Golden Girl” followed before he secured a recurring role as the boyfriend of Pamela Reed, Richard Peyton, on the short-lived NBC sitcom “Grand” (all 1990). The following years found Moses appearing in Oliver Stone's “The Doors” (1991), the indie comedy “Dead Men Don't Die” (1991), the epic “Gettysburg” (1993, starred Tom Berenger and Martin Sheen), the straight-to-video-thriller “A Kiss Goodnight” (1994) and the episodes of “Silk Stalkings,” “The Commish” (both 1994), “Party of Five,” “The 5 Mrs. Buchanans” (both 1995) and “Diagnosis Murder” (1994, 1995).

Despite a number of TV guest spots he had amassed, Moses, however, did not make his debut as a series regular until he was cast as Matt Parker on the first season of the NBC sitcom “The Single Guy” (1995-1996). After leaving the series, he appeared as Woodbury Kane in the TNT two-part miniseries “Rough Riders” (1997), starred as a widower whose life is renewed after an opportunity meeting with a waitress in the comedy film “Just In Time” (1997), had a featured role in the Mimi Leder blockbuster Sci-fi/thriller “Deep Impact” (1998), reunited with his “Gettysburg” costar, Tom Berenger, for the historical movie “One Man's Hero” (1999), in which he was cast as Colonel Benton Lacey, and made his last movie appearance in the decade as the husband of Debby Boone on the fabulous family film “Treehouse Hostage” (1999), directed by Sean McNamara. The industrious actor maintained busy on the small screen by having guest roles on such series as NBC's “Lateline” (1998), CBS's “Chicago Hope” (1998), “Pensacola: Wings of Gold” (1999), CBS's “Family Law” (1999), CBS's “Touched by an Angel” (1999) and UPN's “Star Trek: Voyager” (1999).

Following several more guest stints on the TV shows “Judging Amy,” “JAG,” “ Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” Moses returned to the made-for-TV film to play Dick Clayton on the TNT biopic “James Dean” (2001), starring James Franco in the title role, and to the wide screen feature with a prominent part as a young Alan Shepard on the historical drama “Race to Space” (2002), about a research scientist (played by James Woods) and his son (played by Alex D. Linz) who move to Cape Canaveral during NASA’s subspecies against time and the Russians to reign space. Meanwhile, he played the two-episodic role of Henry Archer on “Star Trek: Enterprise” (2001). More film work in “The Remembering Movies” (2002), Brett Ratner's “Red Dragon” (2002, starred Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes) were ensued by appearances on Fox's “Ally McBeal,” NBC's “Providence,” Fox's “The Practice,” NBC's “ER,” CBS's “7th Heaven,” NBC's “The West Wing,” Fox's “Malcolm in the Middle,” NBC's “Las Vegas” and Fox's “NYPD Blue.” Moses had small roles on the NBC telepic “Saving Jessica Lynch” (2003), the comedy film “A One Time Thing” (2004), the Pierce Brosnan-Salma Hayek action/comedy “After the Sunset” (2004, as Lakers FBI Agent) and the romance “Monster-In-Law” (2005), which starred Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan and Wanda Sykes. He gained notice for his portrayal of fussy husband Tom Fuller on the sequel “Big Momma’s House 2” (2006), starring Martin Lawrence, was cast in the D.B. Sweeney award-winning comedy “Two Tickets to Paradise” (2006) and appeared in the Clint Eastwood noted war film “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006).

“The audition process is never truly a painless one, but with Desperate Housewives it was made less (painful) because Marc is such a terrific writer. I've always had a great relationship with him, so I knew I would be reading for something special. I did a scene with my on-screen son Cody Kasch (Zach Young), which went very well. After that I met with the studio, then the people at ABC, and not long after that I was at work on the set.” Mark Moses

In the showbiz industry since the 1980s, Moses, however, did not enjoy major breakthrough until 2004, when he won the regular role of Paul Young on the massively popular series “Desperate Housewives,” starring Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Crossas Bree Van De Kamp and Eva Longoria Parker as Gabrielle Solis. As the neurotic husband of deceased Mary Alice Young (played by Brenda Strong) and father of annoyed Zach (played by Kody Kasch), he became an immediate star and jointly netted two Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2005, 2006). He made his last performance on the show on January 21, 2007 on the episode “Come Play Wiz Me.”

After his departure from “Desperate Housewives,” Moses appeared as Rob Darcy on an episode of “Without a Trace” called “Without You.” He continued to have a recurring role as Herman 'Duck' Phillips on two episodes of “Mad Men” (2007) and a one-episodic role as attorney George McDougal on the David E. Kelley comedy/drama “Boston Legal” (2007). More recently, in 2008, he played James Grall on an episode of the NBC long-running series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Awards:

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, “Desperate Housewives,” 2006

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, “Desperate Housewives,” 2005