Greg Grunberg of "Heroes" is no stranger to being on a hit show with an extremely loyal fan base. Before he landed on the NBC Monday night smash last season, he had spent four years on "Felicity" and another four years on "Alias."
On “Heroes,” he plays Matt Parkman, a police detective with the ability to hear the thoughts of others. The current season has been great for letting the audience know who Parkman is: “They are really writing for my storyline," the actor says. "Last year, although I loved all my stuff, I’d always hear from people: ‘How are you connected?’ So this year is about going back to the generations before us and what happened to them. And because of that - without giving anything away - there’s a tremendous connection that I have to the whole thing that I never knew existed. I become a very intergral part to the lore of the story and all that.”
Aside from his acting, Grunberg has music in his soul and gets to engage in that passion with some pretty famous friends. He plays the drums in a group called Band From TV which also features James Denton on guitar, Bonnie Somerville on vocals, Bob Ginney ("The Bachelor") and Hugh Laurie on keyboards. They play at variuous charity events and were the featured entertainment at one of the major post-Emmy parties this year.
"We get paid so much money for that," he said of the Emmy night gig. "And all that money goes out to charity."
He also runs a charitable organization called "Hollywood Helping Hands," which auctions off pieces of artwork that are finger-painted by celebrities to benefit the Pediatric Epilepsy Project at UCLA. The oldest of his three sons suffers from pediatric epilepsy.
Although he's now on a show that was a bigger hit than "Felicity" ever was, Grunberg has fond memories of the show and the cast, including Scott Speedman who played his roomate for several seasons.
Said Grunberg: "I just got an email from him, the sweetest email. He must've been in his hotel room and he watched "Heroes" and I don't know if he was being sarcastic or not but he said, 'I just saw 'Heroes' and it's really good and you're really good. I think this show's gonna make it. [laughs]. I love Speedy. It's so great to hear from him."