<P> After appearing on the podcast Crime Writers On...it was announced Cryer is joining the team at the Undisclosed podcast for their second season . </P> <P> Cryer was born in New York City, New York . His mother, Gretchen Cryer (née Kiger; * 1935), is a playwright, songwriter, actress, and singer; his father, Donald David Cryer (born 1936), is an actor and singer who originally studied to be a minister . Cryer's paternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. Donald W. Cryer (1909--1988), was a well - known Methodist minister . He has two sisters, Robin and Shelly . </P> <P> When Cryer was twelve years old, he decided that he wanted to become an actor . When his mother heard this, she thought he should have a backup plan, and joked: "Plumbing is a pretty good career ." Cryer attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center for several summers as a teenager, and is a 1983 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science . He was classmates with screenwriter and film director Boaz Yakin . To his mother's "great disappointment", Cryer skipped college and went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, United Kingdom for a summer short course in Shakespeare . </P> <P> Cryer's first professional acting effort was as David in the Broadway play Torch Song Trilogy, replacing Matthew Broderick, whom he "closely resembled". Cryer was later an understudy and replacement for Broderick in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1989 . </P>

Who played tommy in monk and the kid