Nationality British and American Occupation Actor | Name Michael Benz Role Television actor | |
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Nominations Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Visiting Production Similar People David Suchet, Dominic Dromgoole, Michele Dotrice, Richard O'Callaghan, Imogen Doel | ||
INSIDE THE THEATER with MICHAEL BENZ
Michael Benz is an English/American television and stage actor with dual citizenship. He was born and raised in London, England.
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Education
Benz trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. Prior to this, he graduated with a BA in Psychology from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. As a child, Benz attended The American School in London.
Childhood career
In 1992, while a fifth grader at The American School in London, Benz was cast as Mike in the popular British sci-fi TV sitcom Mike and Angelo, replacing the series' original Mike played by Matt Wright. Benz spent 6 seasons on the series, airing from 1993-1998, and appears in 60 episodes. While on break from Mike and Angelo, Benz appeared as the title character in the 1995 BBC 6-part miniseries Little Lord Fauntleroy, based on the English children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and adapted by Julian Fellowes.
Adult career
Upon graduation from RADA, Benz made his professional stage debut in the Shakespeare's Globe touring production of The Winter's Tale playing Paulina and the Young Shepherd. Also for Shakespeare's Globe, Benz appeared in Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, and the world premiere production of A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine. In the summer of 2012, Benz played the title role in the Globe's production of Hamlet, directed by artistic director Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst. During the fall of 2012, the production toured the United States and Benz was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor at the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC. Benz made his West End theatre debut in 2011 playing Horatio in Trevor Nunn's production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Benz worked with Nunn again later that year, playing Ferdinand opposite Ralph Fiennes' Prospero, in The Tempest also at Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Other stage appearances by Benz include Lee Baum in Arthur Miller's rarely seen The American Clock and Christopher in the premiere of Oohrah! by Bekah Brunstetter, both at the Finborough Theatre; Simon Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; and Balthasar in Romeo & Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Benz was a guest star in the season four Christmas Special of Downton Abbey that was broadcast on 25 December 2013 in the UK (season 4, episode 8 in the US). Benz played Ethan, the American valet to guest star Paul Giamatti's character Harold Levinson.
