Michael Carlisle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and serial-killer Dexter Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. In 2010, Hall won a
Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild award for his role in Dexter.
Early life
Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother, Janice Styons Hall, is a high school counselor in Raleigh, and his father, William Carlyle Hall, worked for IBM. Hall's sister died in infancy before his birth, and his father died of prostate cancer in 1982 when Hall was eleven years old. In a 2004 interview he was quoted as saying,
“ Certainly, for a young boy, there's no good age, but I think I was on the cusp of a time in my life where I was starting to reach puberty, to relate to my father. To have him ... Something gets frozen. As you revisit it for the rest of your life, it's sort of this slow but hopefully sure crawling-out of that frozen moment. ”
Hall attended Ravenscroft High School in Raleigh, graduating in 1989. He graduated from Earlham College in 1993. He later attended New York University's Master of Fine Arts program in New York City.
Career
Hall's acting career began in the theater. Off-Broadway, he appeared in Macbeth and Cymbeline at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and in Timon of Athens and Henry V at New York Public Theater, The English Teachers at the Manhattan Class Company (MCC), and the controversial play Corpus Christi at the Manhattan Theatre Club. He also performed in the workshop production of what was then known as Sondheim's Wise Guys, later version of which were titled Bounce and, finally, Road Show. He sang the role of Paris Singer; this character's songs and function in the play were transferred to the character Hollis Bessamer in the final version of the play. In Los Angeles, he appeared in Skylight at the Mark Taper Forum.
In 1999, director Sam Mendes cast Hall as the flamboyant Emcee in the revival of Cabaret, his first Broadway role. Mendes also directed the film
American Beauty, written by Alan Ball, and he suggested Hall for the role of deeply closeted David Fisher when Ball began casting the TV drama Six Feet Under. "Everything I opened up for Cabaret," Hall reported in a 2004 interview, "I slammed shut for David."
Hall's work in the first season of Six Feet Under was recognized by a 2002 Emmy nomination for an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and 2002 AFI Award nomination for Actor of the Year. In addition, he shared in the Screen Actors Guild nomination for best ensemble cast all five years that the show was in production, winning the award in 2003 and 2004.
In 2003, Hall toured as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago. His only film credits are the 2003 thriller Paycheck, and the 2009 sci-fi thriller Gamer. He also appeared in the 2003 TV movie Bereft. In 2005 he returned to Off-Broadway theatre in the premiere of Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade, playing the title character, an emotionally disturbed little girl's imaginary friend.
Dexter
Hall is currently starring in and co-producing the Showtime television series Dexter, which revolves around Dexter Morgan, a Miami police blood-spatter expert who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer. The series' first season premiered on October 1, 2006, its second season began on September 30, 2007, a third season in September 28, 2008 and the fourth season started September 27, 2009. The season 5 premier is scheduled for a September 26th, 2010 debut. For his work on the series, Hall was nominated for the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a TV Drama and renominated in 2008 for a Golden Globe in the same category. Hall won the 2007 TCA award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Hall was also nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work in Dexter. Dexter was also nominated for a 2008 Emmy in the Drama Series category. He won the award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama at the 67th Golden Globe Awards, 2010, and a S.A.G Award for his work on Dexter.
Personal life
In 2002, he married actress Amy Spanger; he played Billy Flynn opposite her Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago the summer after their wedding. The couple separated and filed for divorce in 2006. On 31 December 2008, he eloped with Jennifer Carpenter, who plays his character Dexter Morgan's sister, Debra Morgan, on Showtime's Dexter.
On January 13, 2010, his agent and spokesman confirmed that he was undergoing treatment for a treatable form of Hodgkin's lymphoma. The cancer is in remission and he is continuing treatments. Many castmates and friends made their concerns known to the media, some even admitting they had no idea Hall was battling Hodgkin's lymphoma because he never showed any signs of the disease.
Hall accepted his Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in 2010 while wearing a knitted cap over his bald head, having lost his hair to chemotherapy.
Bio courtesy of
Wikipedia
(8.60) 
