Biography

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Michael Vartan was born on 27th November 1968 in Boulogne-Billancourt in France. He is the only child of his bulgarian father and polish mother. His parents got divorced when he was only five years old. He grew up in France, where his father lived, and in the U.S, where his mother lived. But by the age of eighteen Michael decided to move to the US permanently after he decided against joining the French military service, because it was mandatory for all males over eighteen to join.

Michael never really thought about becoming an actor. But after he been told by several people that he had potential for it, he enrolled in an acting school. He made his acting debut in the French film “Un Homme Et Deaux Femmes”, in 1991, and the french movie “Promenades d’été” in 1992 followed. It was with the role as an french soldier, in the italian movie “Fiorile” in 1993, that he made his international debut. He considers the american movie “Pallbeared” to be his first big american movie – in that movie he starred with David Schwimmer (“Friends”) and Gwyneth Paltrow.

But the work that made him shot to stardom, practically over night, was with ABC’s hit tvseries “ALIAS” in 2001, where he played agent Michael Vaughn. He played the character for a full four seasons. In the opening of season five the charachter was killed off – or at least that’s what it seemed. The fans was outraged, and they managed to bring back the character for the last episodes, of the fith and final season. I guess we’ll never know for sure, if the plan was all along to bring back Michael for the last episodes, or if it was the fans impact that made that happen.

Michael is, as of fall 2007, starring in a new tvseries – also on ABC – called “Big Shots”, where he plays the character James Auster. The series includes several well known names, such as Nia Long and Dylan McDermott.