How Old Was Noah Wyle When He Auditioned for ER?

Noah Wyle was 21 when he auditioned for ER, and he turned 22 while they made the pilot. He had started out refusing commercials. He wanted theater and film only. Agent Eileen Feldman signed him from a list of high school plays on the back of an envelope, on a recommendation from casting director Gretchen Ronell. When that plan did not pan out, she sent him the ER pilot, which had been written as a feature script. By then he was ready to do whatever came in.

The audition followed a breakup. He was back in therapy and reading The Celestine Prophecy, sitting in the hallway so the other actors' energy would not land on him. The first round went well. They called him back for the producers. He tested against one other actor and got the part. George Clooney and the other leads were about ten years older, and he treated them as older brothers on that set.