Joel Polis was a competitive athlete in high school and earned a full scholarship in gymnastics to the University of Southern California. He caught the acting bug his Freshman year when he was cast in the school's production of "West Side Story." He then received a scholarship to join the Summer Theater Festival on a European tour, performing in England, Germany and the Edinburgh Theater Festival.He dropped out of USC to work as a circus clown, but after three months of tumbling around the arena, he decided that a life wearing big shoes and a red rubber nose was not for him, so he boarded a Greyhound Bus and headed East. He traveled to New York where he studied acting at NYU and with the Broadway director Lloyd Richards. He returned to Los Angeles to finish his BA and then received his MFA from Yale Drama School.Joel has been acting for over twenty years in film, television and on the stage. His first film role was as Fuchs in John Carpenter's classic sci-fi film The Thing (1982). He has appeared in numerous TV shows including Cheers (Gary), Alien Nation, Northern Exposure, Star Trek: Voyager, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Boston Legal, and CSI.Joel's extensive theater credits include the Astor Place Theater, Hartford Stage, Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Odyssey Theatre, and the Pasadena Playhouse.