Evan grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. His parents, Thomas Crook, III and Michele Kent both worked in New Jersey state government, which gave Evan an early and broad look into how government operates. He and his younger brother, Adrian, were very active in any sport that came their way. Evan's passion was baseball, in which he excelled for Lawrence High School (graduate 1991). While at Lawrence High, Evan participated in many school plays and musicals, and was actually voted "Most Musical" his senior year. Evan has always shrugged this distinction off, claiming he has yet to discover his musical talent.

Evan went on to attend and graduate from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he also played baseball until an elbow surgery essentially ended that dream. He was a member of the Hopkins team which, in 1992, traveled to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Moscow, Russia to represent the USA in an international baseball tournament. At Hopkins Evan majored in political science, with a minor in psychology. He also founded the Iota Tau Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

Upon graduating, Evan broke the news to his parents that, with baseball gone, he wanted to take a chance at his other childhood dream of acting. He tempered his parents concerns by informing them, in the same sentence, that he had also taken up skydiving. With the parents distracting by his life-endangering new hobby, Evan managed to land a role in the Philadelphia production of "Grandma Sylvia's Funeral." Within a month he was asked to fill in in the New York off-Broadway version. Evan immediately moved to New York City, and attended the two-year Meisner program at the William Esper Studio.

Again following a whim, Evan managed to get himself hired as a dance instructor for Arthur Murray Dance Studio, despite having no dance training. He moved on to become a very popular independent NYC ballroom/Latin/swing dance instructor. While working at Arthur Murray, Evan met his first first wife, Talia Castro-Pozo. They were married in 2001, but the marriage ended in 2003.

Evan formed his own production company, Pipe Dreams Entertainment, Inc. in 2000, through which he has produced (and performed in) several off off-Broadway productions.

Frustrated that, despite his training and credits, he could not secure representation, Evan took it upon himself to "learn the other side." He worked as an agent's assistant at Abrams Artists Agency from 2002-2003, first in the literary department and then in the on-camera commercial department. He left Abrams Artists Agency to spend more time producing, and to return to acting. With his new knowledge and experience of the business side of entertainment, Evan quickly booked several commercials.

Evan's skydiving came to an end July 4, 2005, when two skydivers in South Jersey had their parachutes entangle while on final approach. Evan and several others performed CPR on the two jumpers for about ten minutes, but to no avail. Both jumpers died in Evan's and the other first-aider's arms. He is now happily addicted to golf.