Who is Michael Emerson

Emerson was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and grew up in the neighboring town of Toledo, Iowa. After graduating in 1976 from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he studied theater and art,he moved to New York City. Unable to find acting work, he took retail jobs and worked as a freelance illustrator. In 1986, he moved with his first wife to Jacksonville, Florida. There, from 1986 to 1993, he appeared in local productions, and worked as a teacher and director.

Emerson considered foregoing a career in acting in favor of a more stable vocation in teaching. He decided to instead further his studies with a Master of Fine Arts, that might also introduce him to theatre professionals and directors in his chosen trade. In 1993, he enrolled in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's University of Alabama-sponsored Master of Fine Arts/Professional Actor Training program and upon graduation, he returned to New York where he appeared in the annual Alabama Shakespeare Festival showcase.

Emerson got his big break in 1997 when he starred as Oscar Wilde in Moises Kaufman's critically-acclaimed off-Broadway play, Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde, and then followed up with several other notable stage performances. In 1998 he performed opposite Uma Thurman in the off-Broadway production of The Misanthrope. In 1999, he played the part of Willie Oban in The Iceman Cometh with Kevin Spacey. He co-starred with Kate Burton in both Give Me Your Answer, Do! and Hedda Gabler.

In film and television, Emerson made a name for himself playing somewhat dangerous, damaged characters. He would play the roles as having an ambiguity about them, with the mild-mannered package not looking like the contents. In 2001, he won an Emmy Award as "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series", for playing the (fictional) confessed serial killer William Hinks in several episodes of The Practice.

One of Emerson's most well-known works was in 2004, as the character Zep Hindle in the horror movie Saw. In that year he also played the loyal somewhat Alfred Pennyworth-like butler to a Rock Hudson-like heartthrob, Guy Stone, in the comedy film Straight-Jacket.

In 2006, Emerson began a guest starring role playing Benjamin Linus (formerly called "Henry Gale" on the show) on the serial drama television series Lost. Originally set to appear in a small number of episodes, Emerson returned for the third season as a main cast member, earning a 2007 Emmy nomination for his work on the series.

Emerson met his second wife, actress Carrie Preston, while he was performing in a stage production of Hamlet in Alabama. They married in September 1998, and both Emerson and his wife starred in the 2004 film, Straight-Jacket. On Lost, Preston portrays Emerson's character's mother in flashback sequences.

* Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (for playing "William Hinks" on The Practice), 2001
* Nominated for a Saturn Award for playing Ben Linus on Lost.
* Nominated for an Emmy Award at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards for portraying Ben Linus on Lost.

Movies

* Playing by Heart (as Bosco), 1998
* The Impostors (as Burtom's Assistant), 1998
* The Laramie Project (as Reverend), 2002
* Saw (as Zep Hindle), 2004
* Straight-Jacket (as Victor), 2004
* The Legend of Zorro (as Harrigan), 2005
* Jumping off Bridges (as Frank Nelson), 2006

Television

* The Practice (as William Hinks), 2000-2001
* Law & Order: Criminal Intent (in the episode "Phantom" as Gerald "Gerry" Rankin), 2001
* The X-Files (in the episode "Sunshine Days" as Oliver Martin), 2002
* Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (in the episode "Ritual" as Allan Shaye), 2004
* The Inside (in episode "Pre-Filer" as Marty Manning), 2005
* Lost (as Benjamin Linus), 2006-

Theater

* The Importance of Being Earnest, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 1990
* Parts Unknown, Players-By-The-Sea Theatre, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 1993
* Amadeus, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 1995
* Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde (as Oscar Wilde), Minetta Lane Theatre, off-Broadway, 1997-1998
* The Misanthrope, Classic Stage Company, 1998
* The Iceman Cometh (as Willie Oban), Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 1999
* Give Me Your Answer, Do! (as David Knight), Gramercy Theatre, off-Broadway, 1999-2000
* Hedda Gabler (as George Tesman), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage, 2000
* Hedda Gabler (as George Tesman), Ambassador Theatre, Broadway, 2001-2002
* Only the End of the World (as Louis), Theatre 3, off-Broadway, 2002
* Frequency Hopping (as George Antheil), Hourglass Group, 2002
* Tartuffe (as Cleante), American Airlines Theatre, Broadway, 2003
* Measure for Measure (as Duke Vincentio), California Shakespeare Theater, Orinda, California, 2003
* Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, The Ridgefield Playhouse for Movies and the Performing Arts, 2004
* Hamlet (as Ghost, Claudius, Osric, and Guildenstern), McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, New Jersey, 2005
* Bach at Leipzig (as Schott), New York Theatre Workshop, 2005

* Participated in a staged reading of a play involving string theory written by Jacquelyn Reingold called String Fever at Rockefeller University in 2003.
* Narrator of a radio play adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story, Murder Mysteries.
* The audio book version of James Patterson's novel, Four Blind Mice, which he co-narrated with Peter J. Fernandez.
* Private Sector, audio book of the novel by Brian Haig, which he co-narrated with John Rubinstein.
* Co-narrated volume III of an audio book series called "Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy," which includes a short story by Neil Gaiman.
* Narrated audio book CD of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men in 2005.
* Narrated audio book CD of The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, published in February of 2006.
* Was the voice of George Washington in Favorite Son, a 2003 experimental documentary film about the relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.
* Participated in a Woody Allen short called "Sounds From a Town I Love" which aired on television during The Concert for New York City in 2001 and depicts people talking on their cellphones as they walk around New York City.
* With other Lost cast members, he participated in a play-reading session in February of 2007 at the Tenney Theatre in Hawaii to raise money for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

* In the show,Lost, the actress who plays his mother is actually his wife.
* Has worked as a freelance illustrator.
* Had a minor role in the X-Files series, as Oliver Martin in the episode 9x18 "Sunshine Days" (2002). He played a man who used his psychic abilities to recreate the Brady Bunch and would unintentionally send people through the roof if they upset him.
o His character was described as being 'quiet, reserved, solitary during childhood,' resembling the Benjamin Linus character.
* Also starred in the "Phantom" episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent (as a child-killer), and narrated a radio drama by Neil Gaiman entitled Murder Mysteries.
* In the 1st installment of the popular horror movie franchise "Saw" - Emerson plays a character named "Zep Hindle" who spends a majority of the film monitoring captive torture victims on a closed circuit camera system very similar in scope and technology to the ones used on the Island.
* Has the same birthday as fellow Lost cast member Mira Furlan.
* Received a 2007 Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Benjamin Linus.

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