Personal details
- Birth Date: 1960-11-06
- Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Birth Location: Bethesda, Maryland, USA
- Parents: Marsha Laycock
- Professions: Actor, Producer, Additional Crew
reference Michael Cerveris came into the world on November 6, 1960, in Bethesda, Maryland, but honestly, if you know anything about theater, you know the guy’s a legend way beyond his birthplace. His dad was a music professor—yep, also named Michael Cerveris, so that probably made for some confusing dinner conversations—and his mom, Marsha, actually danced for a living. Not surprisingly, Michael and his brother Todd (who also caught the acting bug) grew up with a whole lot of creativity swirling around their Huntington, West Virginia home. He didn’t mess around with his education, either—Phillips Exeter, then Yale, where he majored in theater because, well, what else was he gonna do with that gene pool? Fresh outta college in ’83, he jumped right into the Off-Broadway scene, playing Malcolm in “Macbeth.” Fast-forward to 1993, and he’s belting out tunes as Tommy/The Narrator in “The Who’s Tommy” on Broadway, snagging his first Tony nod and basically announcing he was here to stay. Michael’s career just kept snowballing. He took “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” to London’s West End in 2000, playing the show’s wild title character. By 2004, he’d won his first Tony for “Assassins” (John Wilkes Booth, if you’re keeping score), and even dropped his own solo album, “Dog Eared.” TV fans probably recognize him best as the mysterious Observer from “Fringe,” popping up all over the place starting in 2008. And just when you thought he couldn’t get more versatile, he picked up another Tony in 2015 for “Fun Home.” These days, he still owns the stage, but you’ll catch him in films and TV, too—never too far from the spotlight.
referencennHaving a university professor as a dad meant I got dragged into all sorts of random school stuff, especially when they needed some pint-sized actor for their plays. My big debut? Second grade, rocking the stage as one of the prince’s bratty buddies in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Brecht. At seven. Wild, right? Most kids are still trying to tie their shoes and I’m getting thrown into the deep end of German theater. That’s the kind of start that pretty much guarantees you’re stuck with theater for life. I mean, who else can say their first taste of stage lights was courtesy of a 20th-century political epic? After that, every school production just kinda felt like kid’s stuff. “Oh, you want me to be a tree? Please, I survived Brecht.” It’s funny thinking back, but honestly, it set the bar high.
November 6, 1960
5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
Konidela Ram Charan
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Marsha Laycock and Surekha
64 years old