Freckle-faced redhead Noah Emmerich began acting in theater productions in his native NYC before relocating to Los Angeles, where he made his feature debut as the Rookie in "The Last Action Hero" (1993). He paid his dues in small roles in TV-movies, like playing policemen in "Precious Victims" (CBS, 1993) and "Jack Reed: A Search for Justice" (NBC, 1994), as well as making guest appearances on series including "Flying Blind" and "Melrose Place". Emmerich began his feature collaboration with director Ted Demme with "Beautiful Girls" (1996), playing the sole married member of a group of male friends. The actor easily conveyed the maturity and dedication of his character and provided the backbone of the film's ensemble. Demme further tapped the actor to play a blue collar resident of Boston entangled with Irish-American gangsters in "Monument Ave." (1998) and a 1940s baseball scout searching jails for talented players in "Life" (1999). He achieved prominent exposure as Jim Carrey's best friend Marlon in Peter Weir's "The Truman Show" (1998). Many critics dazzled by Carrey's dramatic turn and the performance of veteran co-star Ed Harris tended to overlook Emmerich's solidly outstanding work.

Emmerich would continue to turn out a solid assortment of supporting turns in films including "Tumbleweeds" (1999), "Crazy in Alabama" (1999), "Frequency" (2000), "Windtalkers" (2002) and "Beyond Borders" (2003) before being cast by his "Tumbleweeds" director Gavin O'Connor as Craig Patrick, the kind-hearted assistant coach to Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) in "Miracle" (2004), the true-life Cinderella sports story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Emmerich's performance made for an important counterpoint to Russell's driven, uncompromising Burns and added an important balance of compassion among the adults in the film.