Shemar Moore

Shemar Franklin Moore is an American actor and model. He is best known for portraying Malcolm Winters on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, Derek Morgan on the CBS procedural drama Criminal Minds, and Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson on S.W.A.T. In film, he played G.U.N. Agent Randall Handel in the second and third entries of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series. Moore also served as the third permanent host of the syndicated music show Soul Train from 1999 to 2003.

Moore was born in Oakland, California, on April 20, 1970, to Marilyn Wilson, a teacher with a degree in mathematics, and Sherrod Moore. His mother was of Irish and French-Canadian descent, while his father was African American. Citing 1970s civil unrest and taboos around interracial relationships in the U.S., his mother moved abroad with him as an infant. They lived in Denmark and then Bahrain, where Moore attended a British private school. Returning to California in 1977, he attended The Nueva School and Gunn High School before attending Santa Clara University on an athletic scholarship, playing varsity baseball for four years and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with a minor in Theater Arts.

Moore worked as a model during his college years and later signed with DNA Model Management in New York City, eventually appearing on the March 2009 cover of Men's Fitness. He achieved his breakthrough playing Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless starting in 1994, making regular and recurring appearances across several decades. During his early career, he also hosted Soul Train, played Detective Jesse Reese on Birds of Prey, and appeared in films including The Brothers, Motives, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and The Seat Filler.

In 2005, Moore joined the original cast of Criminal Minds as Derek Morgan, appearing in 251 episodes before departing in 2016. In February 2017, he was cast as the lead in S.W.A.T., which ran for eight seasons through May 2025. Following the series finale, he was set to reprise his role in the spin-off series S.W.A.T. EXILES. His other projects include joining Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 2021 as Randall Handel and starring as the "Unnecessary Action Hero" in Paycom commercials.

Moore's work has earned him eight NAACP Image Awards and the 2000 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for The Young and the Restless, as well as a 2016 People's Choice Award nomination for Criminal Minds. Off screen, he founded the clothing company Baby Girl LLC, which uses its profits to help fight multiple sclerosis, a disease his mother had. Moore dated Shawna Gordon and Anabelle Acosta, and welcomed a daughter in January 2023 with Jesiree Dizon.