Elias Koteas
Canadian actor
Elias Koteas, born on 11 March 1961 in Montreal, is a Canadian actor of Greek descent known for intense, watchful character work across Canadian art cinema and Hollywood. Trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, he worked repeatedly with Atom Egoyan, starred in David Cronenberg's Crash, played the vigilante Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and worked for Terrence Malick, David Fincher and Martin Scorsese. He won a Genie Award, now the Canadian Screen Award, for Egoyan's Ararat, and played Alvin Olinsky on NBC's Chicago P.D.
Elias Koteas appears in 8 films and 1 TV series in The Rerun, from 1990 to 2014. Most of that work is in drama, mystery and thriller. Frequent collaborators in The Rerun: Mark Ruffalo (2).
Known for
- Chicago P.D. (2014), Detective Alvin Olinsky. Plays Alvin Olinsky in the Chicago PD franchise.
- Ararat (2002). Won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).
- Gattaca (1997).
- Zodiac (2007).
Career
The son of a Canadian National Railway mechanic, Koteas studied at Vanier College in Montreal before New York. His early American roles included Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and the hockey-masked Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). At home he became part of a Toronto film renaissance, starring in Egoyan’s The Adjuster (1991) and Exotica (1994) and Cronenberg’s Crash (1996). He led The Prophecy (1995) opposite Christopher Walken’s archangel and joined the ensemble of Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998).
His later film work includes Fallen, Zodiac (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Shutter Island (2010), Let Me In and the Canadian superhero comedy Defendor. On television he played Dominic Palladino on The Sopranos, shot Gregory House in a season finale of House, and from 2014 to 2018 starred as the veteran undercover detective Al Olinsky on Chicago P.D., appearing across the wider Chicago franchise.
Where to start
- Chicago P.D. (2014): five seasons as Olinsky, the unit’s quiet, loyal enforcer.
- Exotica (1994): Egoyan’s hypnotic Toronto drama, and Koteas at his most unsettling.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): Casey Jones, played with hockey-stick glee.
- Gattaca (1997): a small part in Andrew Niccol’s cool genetic dystopia.
Shows
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Elias Koteas been in?
- Elias Koteas appears in Chicago P.D. (2014), Now You See Me (2013), Shutter Island (2010), Shooter (2007), Gattaca (1997), Exotica (1994), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) on The Remote.
- When was Elias Koteas born?
- Elias Koteas was born on 11 March 1961.
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