Duane Martin

Duane Martin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1965. An accomplished athlete throughout his youth, Martin attended New York University, where he played NCAA Division III basketball. In fact, after graduating in 1989. Martin was briefly signed as an un-drafted free agent to a non-guaranteed contract to play for the New York Knicks in the NBA, but was soon cut, and never actually played in a game.

In lieu of a career as a professional athlete, Martin opted to follow his passion for acting, and almost immediately landed his first on-screen role in the pilot for a series called "Moe's World" (ABC, 1990), which was aired as a TV movie when the show was not picked up. Martin would appear in "White Men Can't Jump" (1992) two years later, where he  put his athletic experience to work helping co-stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson play basketball in the film with greater virtuosity. Martin would go on to join the cast of the sitcom "Out All Night" (NVC, 1992-93), and co-star with Tupac Shakur in the movie "Above the Rim" (1994). After co-starring for four years on the series "All of Us" (CW, 2003-07), Martin made a memorable turn in the mini-series "The New Edition Story" (BET, 2017) playing Louil Silas.