Background:

Michael Chernus is an American film, television and stage actor. He has appeared in many films, including “Winter Passing” (2005), “The Messenger” (2009), “Coach” (2010), “Jack and Diane” (2012), “Men in Black 3” (2012) and “The Bourne Legacy” (2012), and played recurring roles on such TV series as NBC's “Mercy” (2009-2010), Showtime's “The Big C” (2012) and Netflix's “Orange Is the New Black” (2013). In 2011, Chernus won an Obie Award and earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for his work in the play “In the Wake”.        


Alum of Juilliard

Childhood and Family:

Michael Chernus is originally from Rocky River, Ohio. He graduated from Rocky River High School in 1995 and then from the Juilliard School's Drama Division (Group 28).     


In the Wake

Career:

Michael Chernus made his feature film acting debut in “Winter Passing” (2005), a comedy/drama written and directed by Adam Rapp and starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell. There he had a small but notable role as Ben. Two years later, Chernus co-starred as Humkin in the comedy/drama film “Lovely by Surprise,” starring Carrie Preston, Michael Chernus and Austin Pendleton. Directed and penned by Kirt Gunn, the film won New American Cinema Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival. He starred alongside Michael Borrelli and John Cariani in the 2008 short film “High Street Plumbing”.

Chernus had a recurring role as Ryan Flanagan in the medical drama series “Mercy,” which ran on NBC from September 23, 2009 to May 12, 2010. The series starred Taylor Schilling, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jaime Lee Kirchner, James Tupper, Diego Klattenhoff, Guillermo Díaz and James LeGros. He also made a guest appearance in an episode of “Bored to Death” called “Take a Dive” (2009).

Around this time, Chernus also appeared in several films. He played the role of Alan in the Academy Award nominated drama “The Messenger” (2009), which was co-written and directed by Oren Moverman and starred Ben Foster, Samantha Morton and Woody Harrelson, appeared with Tony Shalhoub, Barry Corbin and Katie Aselton in Michael Matzdorff's comedy “Feed the Fish” (2009) and was featured in Bart Freundlich's “The Rebound” (2009), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha and Andrew Cherry. He also was memorable as Michael and Jerry in Will Frears' comedy “Coach” (2010, starred Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Gutierrez, Liane Balaban) and Edward Zwick's “Love and Other Drugs” (2010, starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Judy Greer) respectively, had a supporting role in the Kathy Lindboe award winning film “Nonames” (2010) and starred with Samantha Buck in the short film “Split” (2010).

Next up for Chernus, he co-starred with Vera Farmiga, Joshua Leonard and Dagmara Dominczyk in a drama film directed by Framiga called “Higher Ground” (2011), “The Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia” (2011), was cast as The Man in the musical film “The Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia” (2011), helmed by Roderick Hill, supported Riley Keough, Juno Temple and Kylie Minogue in the Bradley Rust Gray drama “Jack and Diane” (2012), portrayed Jeffrey Price in the third installment “Men in Black 3” (2012), which was helmed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and had a small role as Arthur Ingram in the action/thriller movie “The Bourne Legacy” (2012), the fourth installment in the “Borne” film series. Meanwhile, on the small screen, Chernus appeared as New Jersey Bar Owner in two episodes of “Damages” (2011), as Jay Delaney in an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (2011) and as Paul in an episode of “The New Normal” (2012). He had a recurring role as Pastor Rick in the Showtime original series “The Big C” (2012), starring Laura Linney and Oliver Platt.

Recently, in 2013, Chernus appeared as Cal Chapman in three episodes of the Netflix original comedy/drama series “Orange Is the New Black,” starring Taylor Schilling, Jason Biggs, Laura Prepon, Kate Mulgrew and Michael Harney.

Chernus will be featured in the comedy film “He's Way More Famous Than You,” directed by Michael Urie and starring Halley Feiffer, Ryan Spahn and Ashlie Atkinson. The film is scheduled to be released on May 10, 2013. He will also appear in the upcoming films “Mutual Friends” (2013, with Caitlin FitzGerald, Cheyenne Jackson and Peter Scanavino), “Goodbye to All That” (2013, with Anna Camp, Heather Graham and Melanie Lynskey), “Captain Phillips” (2013, with Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener and Christopher Stadulis) and “Glass Chin” (2013, with Corey Stoll, Marin Ireland, Billy Crudup).  

In addition to film and television, Chernus is an skilled stage actor. He took home a 2011 Obie Award and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for his performance in Lisa Kron's “In the Wake” at The Public Theater in New York City. He co-starred with David Hyde Pierce in the Manhattan Theater Club production of “Close Up Space” at New York City Center and starred as “KJ” in Annie Baker's play “The Aliens,” which was named the best play of 2010 by Charles Isherwood, at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Other New York credits include such theaters as Playwrights Horizons, the Roundabout Theatre Company, Primary Stages, New York Theater Workshop, and The Atlantic Theater Company. Chernus also has performed extensively in regional theaters include productions at  at The Yale Repertory Theatre, the Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Guthrie Theater, among others. Internationally, he performed in Adam Rapp's “Finer Noble Gases” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Fringe First Award) and in London at the Bush Theatre.  


Awards:

Obie: “In the Wake”, 2011 Show Less