Biography

Michael was born in Heidelberg, Germany, on the 2nd of April 1977.

Parent's Josef (a chef) and Adele later moved to Ireland when Michael was 2 years old and both Michael and his older sister Catherine were brought up in Killarney, County Kerry.(His parents run The West End House Restaurant there also.)

  Michael attended St. Brendan's College in Killarney . In an interview he says

"It was while I was a student at St Brendan's College in Killarney. One day I noticed a sign on the notice board offering a new activity for Wednesday afternoons. Donie Courtney was offering a comedy and drama class. I was curious so I went along. Shortly after that I ran into him on the street and I told him how much I had enjoyed the classes and he offered me some parts with [Courtney's theatre group] Bricriu. So it's really thanks to Donie and Bricriu that I got started. After St Brendan's I moved to Cork to study drama."

After that, he went off to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. "It was a three-year course, but I dropped out," he says.

Michael now though, is based in London where he has his own production company called 'Peanut Productions ', but likes to go back home to Killarney a few times a year.

Michael starred in the January 2004 Guinness ad ( above + left) called The Quarrel, in which his character swims all the way to New York from Ireland, to apologise to his best friend , no less ! Filmed on location in Dublin, Clare and New York, the 60 second advert was directed by James Brown .

Michael had many minor roles in various tv shows but his first major film role was as Sergeant Burton P. Christensen in Steven Spielberg's ' Band Of Brothers', which lead to parts in the BBC's Gunpowder, Treason and Plot as Guy Fawkes, Canadian movie 'A Bear named Winnie' and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, C4 drama Wedding Belles to name but a few.

Michael has also made guest appearances in Murphy's Law and William and Mary, and Poirot.

Michael's most notable role though, is that of fallen angel Azazeal in Sky One's supernatural drama 'Hex'.

Michael appeared for the first time at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Mary Kenny's play 'Allegiance', which he played Irish leader 'Michael Collins',( Coincidently, Michael's mum is a great neice of Michael Collins' !!)

At present, Michael can be seen in the movie '300', which is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel about the battle of Thermopylae Michael plays 'Stelios' a foot soldier and also 'Angel' directed by François Ozon, in which he plays an artist called 'Esme'. Further projects for Michael in 2008 will include starring in ' Creek', a new vampire movie directed by Joel Schumacher , also 'Hunger' the controversial movie about Irish Hunger striker Bobby Sands directed by Steve McQueen , Eden Lake and a new 4 part drame for tv called 'The Devil's Whore'.

Michael has also been confirmed to play Heathcliff in the movie 'Wuthering Heights'.