American actor, born in 1953 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, a grocery store owner, was an orphaned immigrant from Lebanon who moved to the United States when he was just ten years old, and his mother was a second-generation Lebanese-American. Tony and his nine siblings were all born in Green Bay.

Shalhoub's introduction to acting came when he was only six--one of his sisters volunteered him as an extra for a high school production of "The King and I". After that (well, a few years after that), he attended the Yale Drama School and, after graduation, joined the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Shalhoub's soft voice and understatedly quirky acting style has allowed him to play a wide variety of roles, best exemplified by his three TV series: he was a goofy, thickly-accented cabdriver in "Wings", a manic horror writer in "Stark Raving Mad", and a neurotic private eye in "Monk", which he also produces.

Shalhoub has appeared in a number of films, including "Quick Change", "Longtime Companion", "Barton Fink", "Honeymoon in Vegas", "Searching for Bobby Fischer", "Addams Family Values", "I.Q.", "Big Night", "Men in Black", "Gattaca", "A Life Less Ordinary", "Primary Colors", "Paulie", "The Imposters", "The Siege", "A Civil Action", "That Championship Season", "Galaxy Quest", "Spy Kids", "The Man Who Wasn't There", "Thirteen Ghosts", "The Heart Department", "Imposter", "Made-Up" (which he also directed), "Life or Something Like It", "Men in Black II", "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams", and "Against the Ropes".

Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and various half-remembered magazine interviews

(Remember: Tony Shalhoub would make a great ninja)