About Eric
Born in Milwaukee and raised in the small sub-suburban town of Mukwonago (named by the Potowatomi People, meaning 'the place of the Bear'). Szmanda's love for acting developed at an early age. Throughout his school years, he was very active in theatre. Having performed in nearly 20 plays by the age of 17, Eric was cast as "Lysander" in a touring production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That role brought him as far as the Ukraine and Russia, proving to him that this career could take him places he never dreamt.
Szmanda returned to LA to take on the role of "Nick", a suicidal self-abusive teenager in the Odyssey Theatre's world premiere of Black Box . In 1997-98, Szmanda was cast in his first regular television role, playing "Jacob Resh", a skateboarding computer hacker in the USA Network's series The Net , based on the movie of the same name. After the show was cancelled, he temporarily left the music business to concentrate on his acting career and soon scored the lead role of "Johnny Dodge", a fearless, thrill seeking private investigator with a taste for fast cars and faster women in the UPN/Paramount pilot Dodge's City . When the show wasn't picked up, he took on several recurring and guest TV roles in such shows as The Division, Oh Baby!, Freakylinks, Three Sisters, and Zoe .
In 2000, he was picked up for the role he currently holds as Greg Sanders on CBS's No. 1 drama, 'CSI:Crime Scene Investigation'. As CSI rose to number 1 status, Eric became a regular cast member and shot to fame.
He also landed the lead role in the independent film True Vinyl , where he played the underdog DJ who enters the World Championship of turntablism and a supporting role in 100 Girls. In addition, he has found time for several stage productions, including the Long Beach Opera's La Indian Queen in which he played "Acasco", the Aztec Prince, and the Stages Theatre Centre premiere of The Bullfight as the passionate matador. In 2002, Eric acted in director Roger Avary's highly anticipated film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel Rules of Attraction.
Now, in 2004, fans look forward to his new film Little Athens, written and directed by Tom Zuber, and can catch him each week as Greg Sanders in the new series of CSI.