Born as Franklin Douglas Wert III in New Hampton, New Hampshire, he graduated from the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1985 and started his screen and stage acting in the late '80s. In 1995, he played the recurring role of Dr. Rob Daniels in the short-lived drama series University Hospital, on which James L. Conway served as a producer, writer, and director. Wert also played recurring roles in the soap operas The Young and the Restless and As the World Turns and in the mini series Four Corners in 1998, which also featured the Star Trek actors Timothy Carhart, Spencer Garrett, Eugene Roche, and John Vargas.