Pablo Schreiber of 'A Gifted Man'

In a career less than a decade old, Pablo Schreiber has been in one of the most critically acclaimed series, "The Wire," on Broadway opposite Brian Dennehy in a Clifford Odets revival, and now as Anton, the cool shaman on CBS' "A Gifted Man."

Naturally it all started with Dr. Seuss.

"I played the Lorax in third grade, the titular character, and my father was the director," Schreiber says. "It was pretty awesome. The story he likes to tell is I was incredibly terrified to help the Swomee Swans played by female ballerinas. And when their lungs are polluted and they can't fly anymore, I was supposed to help them up and off stage, and I was too afraid of girl cooties. The Lorax was so not into girls in my version."

By high school, he was playing Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." Now over 6 feet 4 inches tall, Schreiber was then 6 feet 1 inch and 145 pounds, so Tevye was padded with a belly.

Schreiber's teen years were divided between basketball and theater. A year at San Francisco State for basketball followed, but he transferred to Carnegie Mellon for drama, where several co-stars on "A Gifted Man" also studied.

After his graduation in 2000, he asked a successful actor, his half-brother, Liev, for help landing an audition.

"I went to him and said, 'Dude can you call someone?' (Liev said), 'You just graduated. You have a choice. Do you want to be the guy who got it from someone's older brother or who got in on your own?' "

Now married, 33, with a son and another son on the way, Schreiber admits he was "shocked I wasn't being given this thing I was asking for." Yet Schreiber says he realizes that helped him grow as an actor and as a person.

Favorite books: " 'The Corrections' is No. 1. 'Life of Pi' was a very good one. 'Catcher in the Rye.' "

Favorite movies: " 'Il Postino,' 'You Can Count on Me.' "

Favorite music: "M. Ward, Ray LaMontagne, Black Keys and Abbott Brothers."