Donovan was born Martin Paul Smith in Reseda, California.[citation needed]
He graduated from Crespi Carmelite High School and attended Pierce College for two years. He attended American Theater Arts, a combined conservatory and theater company in Los Angeles, where he appeared in the plays Richard's Cork Leg by Brendan Behan and Private Life of the Master Race by Bertold Brecht. In 1983, he and his future wife, Vivian, moved to New York City. He joined the off-off-Broadway Cucaracha Theater on Greenwich Street.
Donovan has appeared in fourteen episodes of the Showtime television series Weeds, which stars Mary-Louise Parker, for which he was nominated for a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by An Ensemble in a Comedy Series. He has also acted with Parker in Saved!, Pipe Dream and The Portrait of a Lady. For the latter film, he won the National Society of Film Critics' Award for best supporting actor.

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