Biografi
Michael Joseph Thomas Ward is a versatile comedic and dramatic actor with experience in film, television, and theater. He began his career after an extensive background in radio as a deejay, reporter, newsman, news writer, and sports director.
Born Michael Joseph Ward III on March 10, 1959, in Elmhurst, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, he was the second of five children of the late Michael J. Ward, Jr., a journalist and public relations executive, and Harriet M. Ward, a nurse. He attended schools in Riverside and Roselle, Illinois, and was athletically active, earning letters in cross country, basketball, and track at Lake Park High School in Roselle.
Michael enrolled at the University of Notre Dame as a pre-med student, graduating in 1981. He then pursued a master's degree in Microbiology at Memphis State University. However, a chance meeting with Memphis WRVR radio deejay Rick Robinson inspired a career shift. With Robinson's help, Michael created a vocal demo tape and transitioned into radio.
Leaving graduate school after eight months, he returned to Chicago and secured a weekend deejay position at WKDC in Elmhurst, featuring Broadway show tunes. He also worked as a reporter for a PM Magazine-style show on Elmhurst Community Cable TV and later interned for Chicago news commentator Charles Cleveland at WBBM-TV.
In 1984, Michael worked part-time as a news writer for WUBE-WMLX in Cincinnati. He moved to on-air roles in 1985, covering Pete Rose's record-breaking baseball pursuit against the San Diego Padres. This led to a full-time position at WRBI, a country music station in Batesville, Indiana, where he served as midday deejay, evening newsman, sports director, and occasional celebrity interviewer, including with Art Linkletter.
His final full-time radio role was as news reporter and fill-in anchor at Cincinnati's WLW station. In 1988, he shifted focus to acting after being cast as the lead in "The Nerd" at a Cincinnati theater. He continued with stage roles in "Blue Jacket," an outdoor production of "Johnny Appleseed," "A Christmas Carol" with The Human Race Theatre Co. in Dayton, Ohio, and "Much Ado About Nothing" at Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare, playing Verges. He later added improv and sketch comedy to his theater work.
Michael's first co-starring TV role was in an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries." A series of commercials for Giant Eagle Supermarkets earned him his SAG card in 1997. Entering film in the early 2000s, he appeared in the independent feature April's Fool (2001), followed by Blue Car (2002) directed by Karen Moncrieff and starring David Strathairn; Turning the Corner (2004) by Daniel M. McCormack; Graduation (2007) with Adam Arkin; the romantic comedy LAID: Life as It's Dealt (2012); the crime thriller A Kind of Murder (2016) starring Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel; the comedy B-Roll (2019); and Echo Boomers (2020) featuring Michael Shannon. He also had notable supporting roles in Todd Haynes’s films Carol (2015), with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and Dark Waters (2019), starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Tim Robbins.
In short films, Michael played Hades in the visual retelling of the Greek myth Persephone (2008) and appeared in projects by emerging writers and directors including The Beekeeper (2009) by Sean Jourdan; White Solace (2011) by Jack Coleman; Bingo Night (2014) by Jordan Lebow; There Is No Door (2017) by Ward Crockett; and Deliver Me (2020) by Yasmin Asif.
His most prominent television role was as Arthur in the sci-fi comedy web series Dark Age (2013), portraying one of a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. Expanding into producing, Michael is an associate producer for the upcoming crime dramedy Silent Bark (2027), written and produced by Karen Cole.
