Thomas Cavanagh (born October 26, 1968) is a Canadian actor best known as the protagonist and title character in the NBC television program Ed as well as for his recurring role as the "Dog Boy" in Providence.
Cavanagh received a Golden Globe nomination and a TV Guide Award for his work on Ed, which ran for four seasons beginning in October of 2000 and concluding in February of 2004. In 2002, he starred in the Showtime film Bang Bang You're Dead, which won a Peabody Award.
He was born in Ottawa, Canada, and moved with his parents to a small village in Ghana when he was six years old. In his teens, the family moved to Montreal where he started high school. While attending Queen's University in Ontario, he became interested in theater and music and played ice hockey and basketball. He graduated with degrees in English, biology and education.
In 1989 he was cast in a Broadway revival of Shenandoah. His stage credits also include productions of Grease, A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Urinetown.
He has long been known in Canada as an actor in television commercials, appearing for Labatt in the 1990s and more recently for CIBC.
In 2002, Cavanagh guest starred on the sitcom Scrubs. He was hired to play Dan Dorian, the brother of lead character J.D. (Zach Braff), because of his resemblance to Braff. He returned for one episode in 2003 and again for a two-episode arc in 2004.
Cavanagh married Maureen Grise, a photo editor for Sports Illustrated, on July 31, 2004 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
In 2005, Cavanagh filmed a pilot entitled Love Monkey with Jason Priestley, Judy Greer, and Larenz Tate. The show was picked up by CBS as a midseason replacement and debuted on January 17, 2006. Love Monkey has been given an eight-episode order and currently airs Tuesdays at 10 pm EST/PST.
