MICHAEL SHANNON

Comedy & drama actor, producer, director, musician

Michael Shannon has starred in major motion pictures alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood for the past three decades.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1974, Shannon split his time growing up between Lexington, where his mother worked as a lawyer, and Chicago, where his father worked as an accounting professor. Without much motivation to excel in school, he eventually dropped out of high school in his senior year. Away from an academic environment, he pursued stage acting in Chicago. His first on-screen performance was a newly married man in Groundhog Day in 1993. 

From there, he took several roles in many major motion pictures including, Pearl Harbor (2001), 8 Mile (2002), Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), The Iceman (2012), Midnight Special (2016), and The Shape Of Water (2017). His performance in Guillermo Del Toro’s Shape of Water, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In total, Shannon has appeared in over 70 movies, 10 television shows, and upwards of 20 stage productions.

Apart from his success as an actor, Shannon also leads the indie folk-rock project Corporal with bandmate Ray Rizzo, who he has collaborated with since 2002. Even though their last record was released in 2010, Shannon still plays with Corporal and occasionally creates music as a solo artist.