Slater was born Christian Michael Leonard Hawkins in New York, New York, the son of Mary Jo Slater, a casting executive, and Michael Hawkins, an actor who was also known as Michael Gainsborough. Slater has a maternal half-brother, Ryan, who is also an actor. Slater attended the Dalton School, the Professional Children's School and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Read more...

Following a run on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, he made his Broadway debut as the lisping Winthrop Paroo opposite Dick Van Dyke in the 1980 revival of The Music Man. Additional Broadway credits include Copperfield, Merlin, Macbeth, Side Man, and The Glass Menagerie. He made his big screen debut in 1985 in the film The Legend of Billie Jean. He had significant roles in the 1986 mystery film Read more...

Slater has a well tabloid-publicized record of alcohol and drug abuse, and a series of high profile romantic relationships. He dated Christy Turlington in 1995. He splits his time between New York City, Los Angeles, California, and London, England. He has two children by his ex-wife Ryan Haddon: Jaden Zach Haddon-Slater (born April 6, 1999), and Eliana Sophia (born August 15, 2001). Slater divorced Read more...