Michael Rosenbaum Biography

Michael Owen Rosenbaum (born July 11, 1972) is an American film and TV actor, director, producer and writer. He is best known for his performance in Sorority Boys and for portraying Lex Luthor on the Superman television series Smallville, a role that TV Guide included in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

Rosenbaum is also known for portraying Dutch Nilbog on FOX's Breaking In, and voiceover work in animation, such as his role of the Flash in the DC animated universe.

Early life

Rosenbaum was born in Oceanside, New York, and raised in Newburgh, Indiana. His mother, Julie, is a writer, and his father, Mark Rosenbaum, worked in pharmaceuticals. He has a brother named Eric and a sister named Laurie. He is Jewish, and was "closer to religion" in New York than in Indiana. Rosenbaum graduated from Castle High School in Indiana and from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, with a degree in theatre arts. Immediately after, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.

Career

Once in New York, an MTV Networks intern named Vincent Letizia spotted his 8 x 10 black-and-white photo in a batch of other casting submissions for a pilot called "Talk Girl". The pilot was never green-lighted, but Rosenbaum stood out as a newly discovered talent. A new MTV pilot was conceived specifically for Rosenbaum with the working title of "The Michael Rosenbaum Project." The project later became known as "The Temp" and covered Rosenbaum in a reality television setting as a temp, who would walk into a different job each day. The pilot featured Rosenbaum as a Cat filling in on Broadway's "Cats" musical, and as a zoo keeper filling in at the zoo, sweeping animal manure and the like. The pilot never took off with MTV Executives.

In 2001, Rosenbaum received a Saturn Award for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville. Continuing in the superhero genre, he played Wally West (a.k.a. The Flash) in the DC Comics animated series Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited as well as portraying a younger Wally West as Kid Flash in Teen Titans. In the third season Justice League episode "Great Brain Robbery", Rosenbaum reprised his role as Lex Luthor when his character was trapped in Clancy Brown's Lex Luthor's body. In February 2007, Rosenbaum confirmed that he would be leaving Smallville after season seven of the show, but later returned to the show's final episode.

Rosenbaum has a few notable vocal impressions in his repertoire, including Christopher Walken, Keanu Reeves, and Kevin Spacey. The makers of the DCAU have used these impressions in their work, having Rosenbaum do his Walken voice for Ghoul in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and his Spacey voice for Deadshot; coincidentally, Spacey portrayed Lex Luthor in the film Superman Returns, and Walken played Max Shreck in Batman Returns. He is currently filming the SyFy comedy series Saved By Zeroes and Breaking In.

After many months of speculation and him first turning down the contract to return, it was finally announced on February 11, 2011 that Rosenbaum would return to Smallville for the two-hour series finale, which aired on May 13, 2011 with Rosenbaum reprising his role as Lex Luthor.

Personal life

Rosenbaum is an ardent New York Rangers fan and often plays in charity hockey games. His favorite band is Guns N' Roses. His favorite animal is a wolf. In an episode of MTV Cribs, Rosenbaum shows his love of singing, karaoke, exercising and Cap'n Crunch. He is left-handed. Rosenbaum often likes to play miniature golf. He was voted Sexiest Villain by TV Guide and People magazine voted him one of the sexiest men alive in 2006.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	The Tom Show	Jonathan Summers	Episode: "The Talk"
1999	Rocket Power	Sports Announcer	Voice Episode: "Super McVariel 900/Loss of Squid"
1999"2000	Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane	Jack Cooper	Main Cast: 24 Episodes
1999"2001	Batman Beyond	Terminal/Carter Wilson Wendell Ollie Carl Agent West	Voice 6 Episodes
2000	The Wild Thornberrys	Tom Ravenhearst	Voice Episode: "A Shaky Foundation"
2000"2004	Static Shock	Trapper The Flash Speedtrap	Voice 5 Episodes
2001"2008, 2011	Smallville	Lex Luthor	154 episodes: Seasons 1-7 (Main Cast for 153 episodes), Season 10 (Special Guest for the series finale) Directed the 125th episode "Freak"; Saturn Awards Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series (2002) SFX (magazine) Best Newcomer (2003) Nominated - Saturn Awards Best Supporting Actor on Television (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006) Nominated - Satellite Awards Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Drama (2003) Nominated - Teen Choice Awards TV - Choice Sidekick (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009)
2001	Friends	Television's director	3rd season
2001"2002	The Zeta Project	Agent West	Voice 8 Episodes
2001, 2002	The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn	Himself	2 Episodes
2001"2006	Justice League	Wally West/The Flash Deadshot Ghoul	Voice 56 Episodes
2003	Player$	Himself	Episode: Charlie's Angels
	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Himself	1 Episode
2004"2005	Jackie Chan Adventures	Drago	Voice 11 Episodes
2005"2006	Teen Titans	Kid Flash	Voice 2 Episodes
2005	The Tony Danza Show	Himself	1 Episode
	Cribs	Himself	1 Episode
	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Colin	Episode: "Gun Fever"
	Last Call with Carson Daly	Himself	2 Episodes
2007	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	Himself	1 Episodes
2008	PG Porn	Charlie Brown	Episodes: "Peanus", "A Very Peanus Christmas"
2009	Untitled Family Pilot''	Derek	Signed on for a currently untitled NBC family program
	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Deadman/Triad Boss	Voice Episode: "Dawn of the Dead Man!"
2010	Saved by Zeroes	Mikey Doyle	Pre-production
2011-2012	Breaking In	Dutch Nilbog	Recurring (8 episodes)

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	The Devil & the Angel	The Devil
	The Day I Ran Into All My Ex-Boyfriends	Bart
	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	George Tucker
1998	1999	Brick
	Urban Legend	Parker Riley
2000	Eyeball Eddie	Skelley	Short film
	Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker	Ghoul	Provided Voice
2001	Sweet November	Brandon/Brandy
	Rave Macbeth	Marcus
2002	Poolhall Junkies	Danny
	Sorority Boys	Adam/Adina
2003	Special	Fred Molinski
	Bringing Down the House	Todd Gendler
2005	Cursed	Kyle	Uncredited
	Racing Stripes	Ruffshodd	Provided Voice
2007	Cutlass	Background Extra #2	Short film
	Kickin' It Old Skool	Kip
	Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight	Tanis Half-Elven	Provided Voice
2008	Shear Love		Short film
2009	Wing Man		Rumored
2010	Father of Invention	Eddie
	Catch .44	Brandon
	Ghild	Brauly Gullivan	Short film
2012	Justice League: Doom	Barry Allen / The Flash	Voice
	Hit and Run	Gil
	Holy Takedown!	Father Wright	Also Producer; Pre-Production
2013	Back in the Day	Jim Owens	Also Director, Writer, Executive Producer; Pre-Production

Videogames

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Gladius	Valens	Provided Voice
2006	Yakuza	Akira Nishiki	Provided Voice
2008	Dark Sector	Hayden Tenno	Provided Voice
2012	Lollipop Chainsaw	Nick Carlyle	Provided Voice
2013	Infinite Crisis	The Flash	Provided Voice

Cameos in animation/comic

• In the Justice League episode Tabula Rasa, Amazo, while looking for Lex Luthor, runs into a character which shares a striking resemblance to Michael Rosenbaum (the character has never been confirmed to be an intentional look-a-like of Rosenbaum, though).
• In Justice League Unlimited #38: On page 10, Giganta and Flash are having a discussion while sitting on a billboard. It reads: INJURED? Call Rosenbaum and Associates (the person in the picture bears a strong resemblance to Michael Rosenbaum).