Blair Underwood / Elias Martinez
Blair Underwood 
was born August 25, 1964 in Tacoma, Washington. Blair got his first break with an uncredited role as Denise's boyfriend in season one of "The Cosby Show" (1984). He later appeared in a season two episode of "The Cosby Show" (1985) as Mark Roberts, a boyfriend of Denise's friend, Suzanne.
Blair Underwood has appeared in a number of movies including a few science fiction movies. He played in "Deep Impact" along side Laura Innes who also stars in The Event. "Deep Impact" like The Event is also known for casting an African American as President. Blair also played in "Gattaca" and is rumored to be in the remake of Fantastic Voyage slated for 2013.
You can find Blair Underwood on Twitter with the handle @BlairUnderwood.
Interesting facts about Blair Underwood:
- Blair is also an author of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series of novels.
- Underwood may produce and star in My Soul to Keep, a movie adaptation of a novel by the same name written by Tananarive Due, a friend and writting partner of Underwood's.
Blair Underwood stars in The Event as President Elias Martinez, Moral, idealistic, and hugely popular with the American people and around the world, Eli wants to be a new kind of President, working toward a new America (sound familiar).
President Martinez discovers that the US has secretly been holding detainees from "non terrestrial" origins. Due to his strong morals, President Martinez struggles with keeping the detainees imprisoned, until he suspects they may be part of his attempted assassination.
Interesting facts about President Martinez:
- His parents were Cuban refugees.
- Despite growing up in Miami, Martinez remains a die-hard Cincinnati Reds fan, and was a huge fan of Tony Perez the Hall of Fame third baseman (who happened to be Afro-Cuban) of the Cincinnati Reds who dominated Major League Baseball in the 60s and 70s