Michael Chiklis, is a successful actor, director and television producer. He is perhaps best known for his role as LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the successful TV series “The Shield” for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe. He is also known as one of the “Fantastic Four”.

He was born in Massachusetts on August 31, 1963. His mother, Katherine (née Vousboukis), a hospital administrative aide, is of Greek and Irish descent and his father, Charlie Chiklis, runs a hair/beauty salon.

When he was 5 years old, Chiklis began entertaining his family with celebrity imitations and appeared in regional theater productions. When he was 13 years old, he joined the Union of Actors and got his degree from Boston University College of Fine Arts.

At the age of 20, he shaved his head to impersonate a 65-year-old man in “You Can’t Take It with You”. Instead of using the standard powder on his head (as he did on his face), he used greasepaint, and failed to remove it properly at the end of each day. When the play finished its run, he was informed he had killed most of the hair follicles on his head, and would be stuck with this look for the rest of his life. Chiklis admits that the next decade was not the easiest for him.
At the beginning of his career, he guest starred in several popular television series such as “Miami Vice”, “B.L. Stryker”, “Wiseguy”, “L.A. Law”, “Murphy Brown”, and “Seinfeld”.

Chiklis’s first successful role was in “The Commish”, a police comedy/drama that ran from 1991–1996, where he played a police commissioner.

After his participation in the “Three Stooges” movie, he decided to change his image radically. With his wife’s help, he spent six months on an extensive workout regimen and shaved his head. With his new appearance, he won the leading role of a detective, in the series “The Shield”. His performance thrilled the audience and was rewarded in 2002 with an EMMY. The same year he also received a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Television Series.

In 2005, he starred in “Fantastic Four” as ‘The Thing’. Thus, he fulfilled a childhood dream, as he was a big fan the comic magazine when he was a kid. His wife visited him on set during the filming and was so shocked when she saw him in his full bodysuit and makeup, she had to be guided from the set in order to collect herself.

He married Michelle Moran on June 21, 1992, and they have two daughters. One of them played his daughter on “The Shield”.

Chiklis is also an accomplished musician, specializing in drums and vocals but also playing guitar and bass. He is a member of several performing bands. Michael Chiklis and his band MCB released their first single “Til I Come Home”, a tribute song to the soldiers overseas. The song has been critically acclaimed worldwide and was used in the TV series Modern Family in 2011.

In 2012, he co-starred in the TV series “Vegas” with Dennis Quaid, where he played a Chicago mobster and Quaid was the Sheriff.

In 2014 he participated in the TV hits “American Horror Story: Freak Show” and “Sons of Anarchy”.

In 2015 he appeared in the series “Gotham”, which is still on. In September 2016 he released his first solo album, “INFLUENCE”. Chiklis wrote and produced the album at his own Extravaganza Music Studio. He also narrated the video introduction of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.

His most recent film was shot in 2016 and is called “The Do-Over”.