15 Facts About Ethan Phillips

Ethan Phillips was born on John Ethan Phillips February 8,1955 and is an American actor.

Ethan Phillips is best known for his television roles as Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager and PR man Pete Downey on Benson.

Ethan Phillips earned a Bachelor's degree in English literature from Boston University and a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University.

Ethan Phillips plays the tenor saxophone in the Allan Wasserman Jazz Ensemble.

Ethan Phillips performed in many plays in New York over the next 15 years, including Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart at the Lucille Lortel, Measure for Measure with Kevin Kline at The Public Theater's Delacorte Theater; and the Broadway premier of My Favorite Year at Lincoln Center, with Andrea Martin and Tim Curry, as well as new works for Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Hudson Guild Theater, the American Jewish Theater, and many others.

Ethan Phillips played the title character opposite Peter Dinklage in The Imaginary Invalid for Bard College's 2012 SummerScape Festival.

Ethan Phillips moved with the show to Broadway's Neil Simon Theater where the play won the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor, Bryan Cranston.

In Los Angeles, Ethan Phillips acted in Side Man at the Pasadena Playhouse, in Lips Together, Teeth Apart for the Mark Taper Forum; in You Can't Take It with You at the Geffen Playhouse, in The Bourgeois Gentleman for the Pasadena Symphony, and as Polonius in Hamlet for the Uprising Theater.

Ethan Phillips has appeared in over 50 films, beginning with Ragtime.

In 1980, Ethan Phillips joined the cast of the sitcom Benson as PR man Pete Downey, for five seasons.

Ethan Phillips played the recurring role of Keith in the final two seasons of Lena Dunham's Girls.

Ethan Phillips played Spike Martin in Armando Iannucci's space comedy Avenue 5 on HBO.

Ethan Phillips went on to play the Talaxian character Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager from its inception in 1995, and stayed with the series two episodes short of its entire seven-season run.

Ethan Phillips cameoed as a holographic nightclub maitre d' in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact, and appeared as a Ferengi pirate captain in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Acquisition".

Ethan Phillips has performed voice work for several of the Star Wars franchise video games: 2000's Star Wars: Force Commander, 2001's Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.