Sharif (pronounced “sha-REEF”) Atkins joins the regular cast of “ER” in the role of third year medical student Michael Gallant.

Atkins describes the character he plays as “very confident, eager and passionate about what he does.” The young actor, who is excited by the challenge of joining the seasoned cast of this powerhouse drama, readily admits there are parallels between Gallant and himself. “Like him, I’ve entered a new and challenging environment where I’m committed to doing my best. So some of that acting you see probably isn’t acting!”

Born in Pittsburgh, Atkins moved with his family to Chicago when he was six years old. His father, a chief public defender, and mother, a museum executive, still reside there (his sister, Makeba, a mechanical engineer, now lives in Tucson, Arizona). While he remembers his first acting role as a strawberry in a fourth-grade school play, he didn’t feel any special commitment to the arts until he participated in a summer theater arts program at nearby Northwestern University.

Atkins later obtained his bachelor of science degree in speech at the prestigious private university in 1997.

He remained in Chicago and worked in small stage productions, guest-starred in brief roles on such series as “Early Edition,” “That’s Life” and “The District,” and appeared in the feature film “Light It Up.”

However, Atkins got his first big break after he came to Los Angeles and crashed on a friend’s couch. He found an agent and was soon cast in “The Big Time,” a two-hour pilot for “ER” executive producer John Wells. Sufficiently impressed with the young actor, Wells offered him the new role of Gallant -- a promising resident who is attending medical school courtesy of the U.S. Army -- over an arc of episodes early in the 2001-02 season.

Atkins, who resides in Los Angeles, celebrates his birthday on January 29