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The Education of Sharif Atkins It was the best Christmas present Sharif Atkins ever got.
In December 2001, Atkins was wrapping up a guest-starring stint on NBC's "ER" as medical student Michael Gallant. He was at home when he got a call from his manager, saying the show's producers wanted him as part of the regular cast, which made him "ecstatic." "You play a waiting game [as a guest star]," he says. "You don't know -- you think you did a good job on your guest-starring appearances, but you don't know if that's enough. So yeah, I was ecstatic." Atkins, 28, only had a handful of one-off TV guest appearances and one small movie role to his name before "ER," making his quick ascendance to regular on a Top 10 series seem all the more remarkable. He had a slight advantage, though, in that "ER" executive producer John Wells already knew what the actor could do. Atkins had a role in "Big Time," a Wells-produced movie -- originally intended as a pilot -- that aired in October 2002 but was filmed before Atkins began his stint on "ER." "I didn't know it at the time, but that was an audition of sorts for me," Atkins says. "I think that's why I started out as a guest, most likely. They wanted to see what I could do with [Gallant] and if I could handle it, because I was pretty much new."
/>After growing up in Chicago and graduating from Northwestern University in 1997, Atkins worked some odd jobs -- "I did some waiting of tables and stocking of boxes" -- and did some theater in his hometown before moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 2000. "The only thing I had lined up was a futon on a friend's floor," he recalls.
Working on "ER," which marks its 200th episode Thursday (May 8), has been like a second trip through acting school for Atkins. "One of the wonderful things about it is that I get to see these other brilliant actors at work," he says. "For me, it's okay if I'm not as good as they are [yet], because I'll get better just for the fact that I'm working with them." Atkins' growth as an actor has somewhat mirrored the development of his character. The audience doesn't know much about Gallant yet, aside from the fact that he's in the military and will stay at County General for a year of residency. The somewhat slow revelation of the character -- a necessity in the show's large cast -- has given Atkins time to consider where Gallant comes from. Gallant has "accepted [his] low-man-on-the-totem-pole position at the hospital," Atkins says. "What I liked about this season is they had me interacting with a few different people, so that helped flesh out the relationships my character has with the rest of the people in the ER." He looks back on an episode early in the season, in which Gallant stands up to resident Dr. Gregory Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) over the diagnosis of a patient, as a milestone for the character. "He's got a little more moxie than he's let on," Atkins says. "I definitely think he's more comfortable in his own skin." Looking ahead, Atkins would like to see Gallant continue to develop relationships with his co-workers, and he also hopes to explore the character's family ties: "I think that will paint a picture of why he is where he is, and why he's chosen what he has." He points to his castmates Noah Wyle and Maura Tierney as an example on that front. Their characters, Dr. John Carter and nurse Abby Lockhart, have dealt with a myriad of familial issues recently, and viewers have been able to see how their relatives shape their lives. "You get a better and fuller understanding of who they are, and it really is exciting to watch," he says. "I love that aspect [of the show]. It adds color to the characters." Atkins' season is essentially finished, and he's looking forward to a summer of auditions and working on a short film with Monte Russell, who has a recurring role as a paramedic on "ER." The way he describes it, in fact, the hiatus will be a bit like summer school. "It's easy to kind of get into a groove when you play a character all the time," he says. "So it's good to put myself back in acting class, so to speak." Related Shows
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