Born March 5, 1974 in Long Island, New York, Kevin Connolly is an American actor and director best known for his role on the HBO series Entourage as Eric Murphy and his role as the eldest son Ryan Malloy in the 1990s television sitcom Unhappily Ever After.

Connolly was born on Long Island, New York, the son of Eileen J. and John Connolly.  He is of Irish descent.  He started his acting career at age 6, appearing in numerous commercials including the “Betcha Bite a Chip” campaign for Chips Ahoy.  He made his acting debut as Chickie in “Rocky V” (1990), then played Dabney Coleman’s son in the feature film adaptation of the 1960s camp television series, “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993).

Connolly had a good year in 1995 – not only did he co-star with friends and future collaborators, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, in the film “Don’s Plum,” but he landed his first major role in a television series, playing Ryan Malloy on “Unhappily Ever After” (WB, 1995-99).  During the show’s fourth season, Connolly was given the rare chance to pursue his other passion – directing six episodes of his own show.  After appearing in “John Q” (2002), Connolly made two more important friends.  His relationship with “John Q” director Nick Cassavetes became one of mentor-tutor and would bode well for Connolly’s directorial aspirations in the future.  As an actor, Connolly had another admirer in “John Q” star Denzel Washington.  When Washington made his directorial debut with “Antone Fisher” (2002), he cast Connolly to play the role of Slim.

Above all else, Connoly’s most well known role is the character, Eric Murphy, better known as “E”, on HBO’s hit show, Entourage.  E is the manager and best friend of Vincent Chase, who is played by Adrian Grenier.  The show’s 8 season run came to a close in September of 2011.

In 2007, he made his debut as a director in the movie “Gardener of Eden”.  After that, he directed some movies “Antwone Fisher”, “John Q” and “The Notebook”, in which he also starred.  After he signed to be in Drew Barrymore’s movie “He’s Just Not That Into You”.  In October 2008, Connolly was hired to direct his first music video for multi-platinum rap artist The Game, featuring R&B artist Ne-Yo.  The video is for the song “Camera Phone” off The Game’s album LAX.

Kevin Connolly Photo Gallery