Although the rest of the New Kids kept squeaky-clean images, Donnie fueled his rep as a troublemaker with an arrest for arson. After the band's breakup in 1994, he pursued a second career in acting, beginning with small but pivotal roles in films such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and the Emmy Award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers (2001).
Since then, Wahlberg has often been cast as a detective, landing the role of Det. Eric Matthews in the Saw series and appearing opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill (2008).