McKinley Freeman

McKinley Freeman was an American actor and producer who appeared in a diverse array of films and television shows, including arcs on three of the most popular soap operas in American history. Born on September 6, 1973 in Champaign, IL, Freeman attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he first earned a BS in Finance, before returning to attain his MBA in Marketing. While working at IBM as a Business Development Manager in 2004, Freeman found out about an open audition for a role on the popular soap opera "All My Children" (ABC, 1970-2011). On a lark, he decided to go to the audition, and ended up getting the part. This lead to a series of appearances on shows such as "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), "CSI: Miami" (CBS, 2002-2012), and "Criminal Minds" (CBS, 2005-), before making his film debut with a small role in the comedy "Delta Farce" (2007), starring Larry the Cable Guy. In 2009, Freeman landed his first series regular role, playing Tony Dane on the final season of the sitcom "Samantha Who?" (ABC, 2007-09). Following that show's cancellation, Freeman returned to the world of soap operas, taking on multi-episode arcs on both "Days of Our Lives" (NBC, 1965-), and "General Hospital" (ABC, 1963-), before appearing in the gritty police procedural "End of Watch" (2012). Freeman's next series regular gig was portraying Derek Roman on the sports drama series "Hit the Floor" (VH1/BET, 2013-). Though Freeman left the show after three seasons, he didn't have to wait long to find more work, in fact, he soon landed two more series regular gigs, appearing on "Daytime Divas" (VH1, 2017) and joining the cast of Tyler Perry's prime time soap "If Loving You Is Wrong" (OWN, 2014-).