Most CRIMINALLY overlooked or underrated actors
Actors who deserved so much more than what they received in their careers.
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Travis Fimmel was born near Echuca, Victoria, Australia, to Jennie, a recreation officer for the disabled, and Chris, a cattle farmer. He was raised on a 5500-acre farm located between Melbourne and Sydney. Until the age of seventeen, his life was spent at school and working on the family farm, morning and night-something he continues to relish on his trips back home.
After high school, higher education called and he was accepted to Melbourne University. It was not long until his intense curiosity led him to begin his global adventures.
While bar-tending in London, giving away almost as much beer as he sold, he met his would-be manager, David Seltzer. David saw a spark in Travis and suggested he move to the United States to become an actor and nurture his talent. Easily enticed by the arts, it was not long before Travis made the move to Los Angeles, and within a week began studying with renowned acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. The teaching veteran, in addition to Travis, has mentored Jake Gyllenhaal, Eva Mendes, Halle Berry, Brad Pitt and Charlize Theron.
Years of struggling and hard work continue to pay off and Travis has chalked up starring roles in several projects including Rocky Point (with Lauren Holly), Southern Comfort (with Madeleine Stowe and Eric Roberts), Restraint (with True Blood's Stephen Moyer), Ivory (with Martin Landau and Peter Stomare), Surfer Dude (with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson), and AE's The Beast (with Patrick Swayze). He is best known for his roles as Ragnar Lothbrok in Vikings (2013), and Anduin Lothar in Warcraft (2016).
Production has taken Travis all over the world but, between roles, he travels back to his family's farm as much as possible. Travis is quick to point out that it is his love for Australian Rules (AKA "No" Rules) Football, the countryside, his two older brothers, and a hard working lifestyle that keeps his feet firmly planted on the ground.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Robert Carlyle was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth, a bus company employee, and Joseph Carlyle, a painter and decorator. He was raised by his father after his mother left him when he was four. At the age of 21, after reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," he enrolled in acting classes at the Glasgow Arts Centre. In 1991, together with four other actors, he founded the Raindog theatre company (named after Tom Waits' album "Rain Dog," one of Carlyle's favorites), a company dedicated to innovative work. Danny Boyle's film Trainspotting (1996) marked his breakthrough.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
He is an acclaimed Canadian voice and motion capture artist for the hit game Grand Theft Auto V (2013) in the role of Trevor Philips. He was nominated in numerous events for the role including a VGX nomination for Best Voice Actor.
He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on November 4, 1973. Before fame, He first appeared on screen as part of a promotion for the National Film Board of Canada. He made his professional debut in an episode of Law & Order (1990). In an amazing trivia, He had roles on television series such as Unforgettable as Larry Yablonski and Broad City as a creepy locksmith. He appeared in a season 3 episode of the James Caviezel starring CBS drama Person of Interest (2011).
Ogg began his acting career in an advertisement for the National Film Board of Canada, before working in various theater productions. Following this, he became more focused on a career in sports, before an injury prevented him from pursuing such a career. After moving to New York, Ogg began acting professionally, starring in television shows such as Law & Order (1990) and Third Watch (1999), in addition to some theater work and voice acting. After taking a break from acting so that he could build a house, Ogg was hired by Rockstar Games to as the voice actor and motion capture artist for Trevor Philips in their video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Following the release of the game, Ogg's character was critically acclaimed, and he later had various public appearances, due to his portrayal.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Hugh Keays-Byrne was born in 1947 in Kashmir, India. In 1973, he moved to Australia, where he began an acting career. He is a well respected theater, film and TV actor in Australia. Hugh became noticed after roles in Stone (1974), Mad Dog Morgan (1976) and The Trespassers (1976). He landed his first leading role in TV film The Death Train (1978), and year later he became internationally well-known for his role of Toecutter in highly praised apocalyptic SF film Mad Max (1979).
Hugh has continued to work on TV, usually in smaller parts, and he is known for his performance as Mr. Stubb in the mini-TV series Moby Dick (1998) and TV series "Farscape".- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Kayvan Novak was born on 23 November 1978 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Four Lions (2010), Fonejacker (2007) and Facejacker (2010).- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Paul Kaye was born on 15 December 1965 in Clapham, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Stranger (2020), Game of Thrones (2011) and Three Girls (2017). He has been married to Orly Katz since November 1989. They have two children.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Gerry Bednob was born on 10 June 1935 in Trinidad and Tobago. He is an actor and writer, known for The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008).- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Scott Edward Adkins was born on June 17, 1976 in Sutton Coldfield, England, into a family that for generations were butchers. Along with his elder brother Craig, he was raised by their parents, John and Janet (Sanders) Adkins, in a loving middle-class family. Scott attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield. Probably not the best of students, he used to sneak downstairs after his parents had gone to bed and watch films all night then fall asleep during lessons. A natural athlete, Scott enjoyed a variety of sports as he grew up, but when he was 10 years old, he accompanied his father and brother to the local Judo club. The attraction was instantaneous. Idolising stars such as Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott began to train everyday. He took over his Dad's garage and turned it into his own Dojo. He even had a shrine to Bruce Lee in there that he would bow to. He remembers being mugged on a bus when he was around 13 and that really kicked his training into overdrive. He wasn't ever going to let that happen again. At the age of 14, Scott went on to train in Tae Kwon Do under the instruction of Ron Sergiew with the T.A.G.B. After a few years, he moved on to Kickboxing under Anthony Jones. He is now a fully trained Kickboxing Instructor for the P. K. A. A self confessed "film junkie" Scott's attention was drawn to acting through the Hollywood Greats. He enrolled in a drama class at Sutton Coldfield College. Being a shy lad he initially found it difficult to be put on stage in front of an audience. Finally, at the age of 21, Scott was offered a place at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. However, as an impoverished student, he found it hard to make ends meet without a grant and was forced to leave without completing the course. Very dejected he thought that was the end.
His first break came when he was offered a role in a Hong Kong martial arts film called Extreme Challenge (2001) (aka Extreme Challenge). Spotted by Head of The Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and director Wei Tung and English-born Hong Kong movie expert Bey Logan, Adkins found himself in the East for the first time. Scott got the chance to work with some of Hong Kong cinema's leading action directors including Woo-Ping Yuen, Corey Yuen, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung and the legendary Jackie Chan. Acting roles started to come in and he was offered a guest role in BBC's Doctors (2000) filmed at Birmingham's Pebble Mill. A few episodes in BBC's EastEnders (1985) and City Central (1998), and a lead role in Sky One comedy drama Mile High (2003) followed by a regular role in BBC's Holby City (1999) as Bradley Hume, the assistant General Manager of Holby General.
Starring roles in feature films soon followed with his portrayal of Talbot in Special Forces (2003) and Yuri Boyka" in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing (2006). It was this film that broke him into the mainstream with his villainous portrayal of a Russian MMA underground fighter Boyka in what has been hailed as one of the best American made Martial Arts films of recent times. Along with lead actor Michael Jai White, fight coordinator J.J. Perry and the slick direction of Isaac Florentine this movie has some unbelievably heart stopping fight scenes. After this Scott has had guest starring roles in bigger budget films like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Tournament (2009), and played Jean-Claude Van Damme's main adversary in Sony Pictures The Shepherd (2008).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Luke Goss started his acting career playing 'Danny Zuko' in the smash hit musical Grease, on London's West End, and later toured with the production throughout the United Kingdom. He established himself as a screen actor in 2002 with performances in two very different features: David Goyer's independent drama ZigZag, with John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Natasha Lyonne and Wesley Snipes; and Guillermo Del Toro's supernatural action feature Blade II, with Snipes and Ron Perlman. The following year, he starred in the title role of the critically acclaimed British gangster film Charlie, and in the role of the monster in the Emmy Award-winning Hallmark miniseries Frankenstein, with Donald Sutherland and William Hurt. In 2005, Goss traveled to India to play the role of King Xerxes in the Biblical epic One Night With The King, opposite Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole, firmly establishing him as a versatile actor. He then went on to star in The Man, with Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy; Mercenary, with Steven Seagal; Bone Dry, with Lance Henriksen; Unearthed, with Emmanuelle Vaugier; Deep Winter, with Michael Madsen; and Shanghai Baby, with Bai Ling. 2008 reunited Goss with Guillermo Del Toro in Universals Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the sequel that opened in the number one spot at the U.S. box office. The role earned Goss 2 MTV Movie Award nominations. He had the starring role in Tekken, a sci-fi feature thriller based on the popular video and arcade game. He has completed filming his first role for Network Television in JJ Abrams "Fringe". Luke has also played leading roles in Across The Line, Blood Out, and has taken over Universals Death Race franchise, firmly establishing him as a leading man.
He was born in Lewisham, London, to Carol (Read) and Alan Goss.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Gustaf Skarsgård was born on 12 November 1980 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He is an actor and director, known for Oppenheimer (2023), Westworld (2016) and Vikings (2013).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Roger Ward was born in 1936. He is an actor and writer, known for Mad Max (1979), Quigley Down Under (1990) and Bad Behaviour (2010).- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Production Manager
Chris Haywood was born on 24 July 1948 in Billericay, Essex, England, UK. He is an actor and production manager, known for Sleeping Beauty (2011), Muriel's Wedding (1994) and Quigley Down Under (1990).- Anthony Simcoe was born on 7 June 1969. He is an actor, known for Farscape (1999), The Castle (1997) and Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004).
- Wayne Pygram was born on 13 October 1959 in Cootamundra, Australia. He is an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004) and Farscape (1999).
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
John Witherspoon was an African-American actor from Detroit, Michigan known for playing Granddad from The Boondocks and Willie Jones from the Friday trilogy. He also acted in Boomerang, Little Nicky, Soul Plane, Vampire in Brooklyn, Black Jesus and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He passed away in October 29, 2019 due to a heart attack.- Song Kang-ho never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Kimhae High School. Later, he joined Kee Kuk-seo's influential theater company with its emphasis on instinctive acting and improvisation, which proved to be Song's training ground. Although regularly approached to act in films, he always turned down the opportunity until taking a role as an extra in Hong Sang-soo's The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996). In the following year, after portraying one of the homeless in Jang Sun-woo's docu-drama Bad Movie (1997), he gained cult notoriety for his scene-stealing performance in Neung-han Song No. 3 (1997) as a gangster training a group of young recruits, winning his first Best Actor award.
Since that time he was cast in several supporting roles before his high-profile role as Han Suk-kyu's secret-agent partner in Kang Je-kyu's blockbuster thriller Shiri (1999). In early 2000, Song became a star with his first leading role in the box office smash The Foul King (2000), for which he reputedly did most of his own stunts. But it was with his award-winning role as a North Korean sergeant in Joint Security Area (2000) that Song has come to the forefront as one of Korea's leading actors. Song also starred in Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), which centers around a father's pursuit of his daughter's kidnappers.
In 2002 Song starred in another major production by Myung Film titled YMCA Yagudan (2002), about Korea's first baseball team, which formed in the early 20th century. He came to international attention with the film The Host (2006), which reunited him with director Bong Joon Ho. With Snowpiercer (2013), his third collaboration with Bong, he made his debut in an English-language film with international theatrical distribution.
In 2008 he starred in Kim Jee-woon's film The Good the Bad the Weird (2008), where he played Tae-goo, the motorcycle-riding, walther-wielding counterpart to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"'s Tuco.
In 2015, Song Kang-ho works on 'The Throne', a period drama of palace intrigues par excellence and whose film is nominated that year for best non-English-language film and costumes at Satellite awards. Already in 2016 he makes his fourth collaboration with Korean director Kim Jee-woon and is none other than the critically acclaimed film "The Empire of Shadows." A period drama with a background of espionage intrigue with a very good technical bill. - Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
Bruno Ganz was an acclaimed Swiss actor who was a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years. He is internationally renowned for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004).
Ganz was born in Zürich, to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university. He debuted at the theatre in 1961, and gained a reputation as a reflective, charismatic and technically brilliant stage actor. In 1970, he and Peter Stein founded the theatre company 'Schaubühne' in Berlin, Germany. On stage, Ganz portrayed Dr. Heinrich Faust in Peter Stein's staging of Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two in 2000.
In cinema, Ganz became one of the best-known and most acclaimed actors in the German language, collaborating with many of the most respected European actors and directors of his time. He also starred in international features that reached a global audience. His film debut was The Gentleman in the Black Derby (1960). He also starred in Unknown (2011), The Counselor (2013), and The Party (2017).
Ganz died from cancer on 16 February 2019 at his home in the village of Au, in Wädenswil, Switzerland.- Aleksey Kravchenko was born on 10 October 1969 in Moskovskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He is an actor, known for Come and See (1985), 9th Company (2005) and Zaverbovannyy. He is married to Nadezhda Borisova. He was previously married to Alisa ?.
- Actor
- Director
Andreas Wisniewski was born on 3 July 1959 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Die Hard (1988), The Living Daylights (1987) and Mission: Impossible (1996).- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
To the cinema world, Arno Frisch is best known for his two first films under the direction of Michael Haneke, even though his career progressed over the years. He was born in Vienna, on November 13, 1975. Around the age of 17, he was selected by Haneke to act as lead in his second cinema feature. As the title character in Benny's Video (1992), Frisch demonstrated the right qualities in the complex role of a stoic teenage boy fascinated with what a video camera can capture to the point of registering a murder on film and involving his parents into his problems; while in Funny Games (1997) he was the leader of a perverse game of sadism and violence against a family in one of the most controversial films to be played at the Cannes Film Festival during that year; but that role was the one where audiences started to pay more attention to this gifted young actor whose character could be charming seductive and polite in one scene and then recur to brutal senseless acts.
Other credits include feature films such as Vienna Murder Mystery (1997), Angel Express (1998), Sentimental Education (1998), Julies Geist (2002), as the dealer Niko in the human-trafficking drama Masz na imie Justine (2005), Falco - Verdammt, wir leben noch! (2008) and Sleeping Songs (2009); and several short films where he acted as a lead actor.- Mackenzie Crook, one of British comedy's best-known faces, who collected Star Wars figurines as a child, is now immortalized in plastic as a six-inch-high pirate action figure. He was born Paul Mackenzie Crook on September 29, 1971, in Maidstone, Kent, England, UK. His father worked for British Airways. His mother was a hospital manager. He went to grammar school in Dartford, and did his first plays there. In the summers, he spent time with his uncle in Zimbabwe.
Young Mackenzie Crook expressed his creativity through painting and even copied a pre-Raphaelite's painting on to the back of his biker's jacket. He also joined a local youth theater. At the age of 18, he failed to secure a place at art college and turned to writing comedy sketches. Crook ended up working at Pizza Hut, and at hospitals. However, the principal of the youth theater believed in his potential and became his manager, guiding Crook to a career as a stand-up comedian. In 1996, he made his film debut in The Man Who Fell in Love with a Traffic Cone! (1996). In 1997, Crook was scouted by Bob Mortimer at the Edinburgh Festival. Soon he made his debut on television as a stand-up comedian on The 11 O'Clock Show (1998), then worked on other TV shows playing grotesques and exaggerated characters.
He shot to fame as Gareth Keenan, a quirky geek with a funny haircut in a TV hit comedy, The Office (2001), and earned himself a British Comedy Award nomination. He also was a member of the main cast of the BBC show "TV to Go" (2001)_. After that, Crook shared the screen with Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice (2004), with Heath Ledger in The Brothers Grimm (2005), and with Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland (2004). Depp bonded with Crook during the making of 'Neverland' and it was Depp who recommended him for the part of Ragetti, his best-known role, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Crook is also billed as Ragetti in the third installment of the 'Pirates' franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
After having spent about a decade on a stand-up comedian circuit, Crook made a perfect tool out of that character-actor face and added experience to his effortless style. It is in the 'Pirates' trilogy that Mackenzie Crook had showed his funniest and widest variety of emotions, effortlessly shifting his facial expression from a deep philosophical pensiveness to a grotesque excitement, and from a comically exaggerated fear to such a gleeful exuberance while removing his wooden eyeball. For that particular scene he was wearing two contact lenses sandwiched on top of each other.
In 2004, Crook appeared as Billy Bibbit opposite Christian Slater in the West End stage production of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," which initially opened at Gielgud Theatre and then was shown at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. At the same time, Crook has been writing a script for his own future project; he describes it as a period production that is set in London around the same period as the 'Pirates' movies.
Mackenzie Crook has been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, Lindsay, a former advertising executive and club owner, and their son Jude (born in 2003). He is fond of gardening and is also focused on maintaining an organic way of life. He resides with his family in Peter Sellers' old art-deco house in Muswell Hill, North London, England. - Actor
- Additional Crew
Elya Baskin is a Soviet Latvia-born American actor, best-known for his work on Spider-Man 2 (2004), The Name of the Rose (1986) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). He was born on August 11, 1950 in Riga, USSR [now Latvia] as Elya Zalmanovich Baskin to Zalman and Frieda Baskin, both of Russian Jewish descent. He attended and is a graduate of Moscow's prestigious Theatre and Variety Arts College and won a Festival of Young Actors Award at the Moscow Comedy Theatre; Baskin was virtually assured of a successful career in the Soviet Union. About his choice of profession in the former USSR he has said: "In Russia, being an actor when it was still the Soviet Union was one of the most prestigious professions. It was like being a doctor here. You had to graduate from one of very few theatre schools, which were all four-year colleges. Without the degree, nobody would hire you. We worked very hard because we wanted to get through the four years and get the diploma, but after you graduate and go to the theatre, the actors don't work like actors work here. That's what fascinated me more than anything else here, how professional people were, how hard they worked, and how much harder it was to get work. In Russia we were always taught that we had the best theatre schools, but when I came here and started to work, I saw how wrong we were. You really have to be the best to get the part here."
Then he built a formidable reputation on the European stage. Baskin immigrated to the United States in 1976 when pre-perestroika emigration rules were relaxed in 1976 and he came to Hollywood, although he spoke no English. About the change from stage to screen work, he said: "In Moscow, theatre was my passion, my love, and I did very little television and film. Once I came here, I thought that because of the language barrier -I didn't know that you don't loop the films like we do in Europe- I'll try to pursue TV and films. For some reason I lost interest in theatre. Film work became so much more fascinating, the whole building of the character, no continuity, the whole camera aspect. Those are the things that really fascinated me. The language was the biggest challenge. Instead of concentrating on the development of the character, you're thinking about your mouth, about putting your tongue in the right position so people can understand you. I've worked for 20 years, and I will never be able to do a role in English like I would do it in my native tongue, and I know it. Of course, with the years it becomes easier, and more often than not I'm cast as a character with an accent."
Baskin fit the bill in Hollywood for ethnic character portrayals, especially characters with a Slavic background and an amiable demeanor. About his being stereotyped, he said: "I feel that, of course, I'm stereotyped. But what can you do? I can't imagine that some director would cast me as a sheriff from Alabama. But you can do exactly what you said: With every character, they're different people, and it's up to you what you do with them. This is your challenge. It doesn't matter how limited your piece of the pie that you can use, you always try to do the best that you can. How can I be upset for not being cast as a Southern sheriff? That's what you call acting; you try to utilize whatever you can to be a different person every time."
He achieved his international breakthrough, however, at the hands of Hollywood giant Paul Mazursky, who cast him opposite Robin Williams as the clownish Russian circus performer Anatoly in the masterful serio-comedy, Moscow on the Hudson (1984) where the actor's birdlike arm-flapping became one of the film's most poignant and memorable images. An additional collaboration with Mazursky followed, the 1989 smash Enemies: A Love Story; in the meantime, Baskin began to rack up a litany of roles in additional A-list projects, including 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), Vice Versa (1988), and Love Affair (1994). The Pickle (1993) re-teamed Baskin and Mazursky for a third occasion; unfortunately, it failed to match the critical or commercial success of its predecessors.
Baskin remained popular through the end of the following decade, with a memorable comedic turn as Vladimir on the sitcom Mad About You, and prominent roles in films such as Spider-Man 3 and The Dukes (both 2007). He has continued playing guest roles on TV in such series as The West Wing, Alias, The Closer, Criminal Minds, Heroes, and Cold Case.
Baskin emigrated to the United States in 1976 and became a United States citizen on April 1, 1985. He and his wife Marina have been married since 1995. They have one child, a daughter, Michelle.- Actress
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- Producer
Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, the star of Precious (2009), was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother, Alice Tan Ridley, is a former special education teacher who gave up her career and became a street performer/singer, while her father, Ibnou Sidibe, is a cab driver. Her mother is African-American and her father is Senegalese. Her parents split when she was a youngster and Gabby grew up in Harlem. Though she was cast in school plays as a child, Sidibe had no interest in acting. She had witnessed her mother's financial struggles as a street singer and wanted the security that an education and a desk job would give her. After attending local colleges, Gabby pursued a degree in psychology at Mercy College. She was in the middle of preparing for an exam when a friend phoned her about an audition for the newest effort from Lee Daniels, Precious (2009).
Instead of attending class, she ended up being cast in the title role as Claireece "Precious" Jones, a taciturn, sixteen year-old who is pregnant for the second time after being raped by her father and is also on the receiving end of constant physical abuse by her mother. As grim as the subject matter is, Precious (2009) has become critical success and a source of inspiration for many. While her co-stars, Mo'Nique and Mariah Carey have both received a great deal of critical attention, it is Gabby who is the revelation as Precious, a character whose personality is quite different from her own. Anyone expecting a damaged young woman with no self-esteem is in for a shock after meeting the charming Sidibe. She hopes that her success in the film will motivate others to chase their dreams.
Precious (2009) has opened other doors for Sidibe. She has also completed shooting Yelling to the Sky (2011), a project from the Sundance Lab that also stars Zoë Kravitz and has other projects in the works.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
David was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Patti, a travel agent, and weatherman Dave Roberts (Boreanaz). His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of half Slovak ancestry. At the age of seven he decide to be an actor, which eventually led him to study cinema and photography at Ithaca College in New York. After graduating from college, David moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in the movies. After some uncredited roles he received his first important role as Kelly's boyfriend in the series Married... with Children (1987). After three seasons of playing Angel in the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), he received his own spin-off show titled Angel (1999).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Michael Mando has had an international upbringing. Initially born in Quebec City, he found himself growing up all over the world, from Canada to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and finally the United States. He speaks four languages: French, English, Arabic, and Spanish. Despite excelling in competitive sports such as hockey, football, and soccer, he opted for an academic scholarship instead.
Everything changed when he was caught in a crossfire and took a bullet to the knee. During his years of rehabilitation, he discovered a deep love of acting. This passion led him to study contemporary and classical theatre, which provided him with the foundation to make the leap into video games, co-creating the character Vaas in the international success Far Cry 3.
He was later nominated twice in the same year for Best Supporting Actor at the Canadian Screen Awards for his performances in TV dramas Rookie Blue and Orphan Black. Michael broke into TV mainstream during his six-season run with Better Call Saul, earning him multiple award nominations for his performance as Nacho Varga.
He's been teased as the super-villain The Scorpion in Marvel's Spiderman franchise, with upcoming roles including a lead in "King Ivory" (2024).- Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han Seok-gyu. 1997 marked his return to motion pictures, with a role as a tough-talking police investigator in Song Neung-han's No. 3 (1997). His biggest role came in 1999, when he was cast in Korea's most successful film ever, Shiri (1999). His portrayal of a North Korean agent garnered him much praise and a Best Actor Award from the 1999 domestic Grand Bell Awards.
After starring in a theater production of Hamlet in spring of 1999, Choi took on the role of a husband who discovers his wife's infidelity in Happy End (1999), and in early 2001 starred as a third-rate gangster opposite Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung in the acclaimed Failan (2001). In 2003 he starred in the now classic Oldboy (2003).