Is Shemar Moore Married, Who Is His Wife? Family, Parents, Is He Gay?
Shemar Moore was born Shemar Franklin Moore on April 20, 1970, in Oakland, a major West Coast port city with a significant black population, in California.
As a child, Moore lived in Denmark and later Bahrain due to his mother’s work. He said his mother tried to protect him from the ongoing civil unrest and racism that embroiled the United States in the 70s. He also noted that interracial relationships were frowned upon at the time and with him being a product of one, she did not want him to experience the hatred.
The family, however, returned to the U.S in the late 70s and moved to Chico, another city in California. He first attended a private British school while in Europe before joining Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. He then attended Santa Clara University where he graduated with a major in Communication and a minor in Theatre Arts.
While in college, Moore did a few odd jobs to pay his bills as he played varsity baseball with huge hopes of making it to the majors as a professional baseball player. Those dreams were, however, flushed down the drain after he got an injury that meant he could not continue playing. Moore then focused his attention on getting to Hollywood but first had to pick up a few modeling jobs to sustain himself.
After college, Moore relocated to the city of angels, Los Angeles, to began his pursuit of an acting career. To the surprise of his family members who did not think he was making the correct decision, Moore landed his first big role in ‘The Young and the Restless’. He featured in the soap opera for eight years before quitting but has gone back to make additional appearances after that.
Moore was outstanding in the show. His performance in the first season earned him an Emmy and Image Awards nomination for Outstanding Younger Actor and Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama series, respectively. He went on to win eight awards for that particular role, including a Daytime Emmy in 2000 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
The show helped define Moore’s career as other projects began to come through. He made his big-screen debut in 1998 in Hav Plenty and later starred alongside Morris Chestnut and Bill Bellamy in the 2000 romantic comedy, ‘The Brother’.
Immediately after Moore left The Young and Restless in 2005, he was cast in the police procedural crime drama, ‘Criminal Minds’ where he played the role of Derek Morgan, a supervisory agent in the behavioral unit of the FBI. The show turned out to be another defining project for him, earning him an Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. He worked on the show for 11 seasons before leaving it to join the cast of ‘S.W.A.T’ in 2017.
