Acting McNeill grew up in
Atlanta and began his career acting in local and regional productions before becoming a student at
Juilliard School in New York City. He enjoyed early success as a professional actor, winning the role of Charlie Brent on
All My Children and starring in the feature film
Masters of the Universe alongside
Courtney Cox. He starred in "
A Message from Charity", an episode of the 1980s version of
The Twilight Zone. He appeared with
Stockard Channing in the Broadway production of
Six Degrees of Separation. McNeill played the role of Jack in the national touring company of
Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award–winning musical, before returning to Los Angeles to pursue roles on television. He also featured in guest roles on numerous TV series, including
L.A. Law,
Quantum Leap, and
Murder, She Wrote. He was a featured cast member on the short-lived 1992 series
Going to Extremes. Another guest role that same year was in "
The First Duty", an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he played Nick Locarno, a Starfleet Academy cadet and squad leader who pressures fellow cadets (including
Wesley Crusher) into covering up their wrongdoings. He later became a
Trek regular in 1995 on
Star Trek: Voyager, in which he played
Tom Paris, a Starfleet officer with a backstory similar to Locarno's. In 2023, he reprised the role of Nick Locarno in
Star Trek: Lower Decks season four. His other credits include
Zebulun in
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the
Paper Mill Playhouse.
Directing McNeill began his directing career with several episodes of
Voyager. He then wrote, produced, and directed two award-winning short films,
The Battery starring
Joshua Jackson and
9mm of Love, and began to direct other episodic television shows. While he has since performed as a guest star on television shows such as
The Outer Limits and
Crossing Jordan, McNeill is now focusing on his directing career, helming episodes of ''
Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Star Trek: Enterprise, Dead Like Me, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Las Vegas, Summerland, and Supernatural. His directing credits for 2006–2007 included episodes of Desperate Housewives, Medium, Standoff, The Nine, The Knights of Prosperity, In Case of Emergency, What About Brian, and My Boys. In 2007, he directed the season-five premiere of Las Vegas
, the pilot of Samantha Who?, and then signed on as a producer-director of the NBC show Chuck, helming numerous episodes, including the first episode of a television show to be broadcast entirely in three dimensional style. From 2010 through 2015, McNeill directed episodes of V, Smash, White Collar, Breaking In, The Mentalist, Blue Bloods
, Suburgatory, Warehouse 13, Mind Games, and Red Band Society. In 2013, McNeill became an executive producer and director of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce for all 5 seasons. As of 2019, he has directed episodes of the Fox series The Orville, as well as episodes of A Million Little Things, The Resident, and Suits, as well as executive produced and directed The Gifted. In 2021, McNeill executive produced and directed several episodes of the Disney+ series Turner & Hooch''. In 2019, he became the producer-director on SYFY's
Resident Alien, now in its 4th season. From 2022 to 2024, McNeill directed episodes of
So Help Me Todd,
True Lies, and
Alert: Missing Persons Unit.
Podcast In May 2020, McNeill and
Voyager co-star
Garrett Wang started the podcast
The Delta Flyers, wherein they discuss episodes of
Voyager. The show has been successful enough that it has progressed to episodes of
Deep Space Nine, with
Armin Shimerman and
Terry Farrell as regular hosts. ==Personal life==