Many Montgomery County residents know Eric Steinberg from his decades-long acting career, but before appearing on television screens and in video games, he represented students across the county as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Education.
Steinberg served as the Student Member of the Board (SMOB) during the 1986-1987 school year while a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda.
Born in the Washington, D.C. region to a Korean mother and a father of mixed European heritage, Steinberg went on to build an impressive career in entertainment following his graduation from Whitman. After high school, he attended both the University of Vermont and the University of Kent in England before receiving an acting fellowship at the University of California, Irvine.
His acting career spans television, film, and video games, with appearances in numerous popular series over the years. One of his first highly visible television roles was as Mr. Ho on the 1990s FOX sitcom Martin, starring Prince George’s County native Martin Lawrence.
Steinberg’s extensive television resume also includes appearances on JAG, NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Star Trek: Voyager, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, and Disney XD’s Zeke and Luther. Among his most memorable recurring roles was portraying Ji Min Kim on The Young and the Restless and Netan on Stargate: SG-1 between 2006 and 2007.
Many viewers may know him best as Wayne Fields, the father of Emily Fields, one of the central characters on the hit series Pretty Little Liars. His portrayal earned him recognition among a new generation of television audiences and became one of the most recognizable roles of his career.
Steinberg has also found success in the gaming world. He provided the voice and motion capture performance for Lord Shimura, one of the central characters in the critically acclaimed video game Ghost of Tsushima.
