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Michael Park (actor)

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Michael Park
Born
Michael Frank Park

(1968-07-20) July 20, 1968 (age 56)
Alma materNazareth College
OccupationActor
Years active1992–present
Spouse
Laurie Nowak
(m. 1996)
Children3

Michael Frank Park (born July 20, 1968) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Jack Snyder on As the World Turns (1997– 2010), Larry Murphy in the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen (2016), and reporter Tom Holloway in the third season of the Netflix series Stranger Things (2019).

Park won back-to-back (2010, 2011) Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. In 2018, for his work in Dear Evan Hansen, Park won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program.

Early life

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Park was born in Canandaigua, New York, but spent a year of his childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[1]

Career

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Park attended Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, originally intending to become an architect, before deciding to become an actor.[2] He worked in the 1992 New Plays Festival at Geva Theatre in Rochester. He appeared in regional productions including Ellen Universe Joins The Band and Peephole.[3]

In 1994, Park appeared in the musical Hello Again at Lincoln Center Theater.[4] In August 1994, Park was in the Goodspeed Opera House production of Shenandoah,[5] and Good News at the North Shore Music Theatre (1994). After understudying Billy Bigelow in the 1994 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, he made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Smokey Joe's Cafe.[6] In 1997, Park played Monty in the Playwrights Horizons production of Violet.[7]

The day after Violet opened was Park's first day in the long-running daytime soap opera As the World Turns as Jack Snyder, joining in April 1997.[8] Park received three Emmy nominations and several other soap-opera acting awards, including winning the 2010 and 2011 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.[9]

During his 13-year tenure in As the World Turns, he continued to work in theatre, playing Lucky Malone in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Little Me (1998).[10] He made two New York City Center Encores! appearances: Bloomer Girl in 2001 as Jeff Calhoun, and Applause in 2008 as Bill Sampson.[11]

With As the World Turns coming to an end in June 2010, Park returned to the stage, and played the role of Pete's ghost father who appeared to his son as three "Alamo" characters in the coming-of-age musical The Burnt Part Boys at Playwrights Horizon.[12] In the summer of 2010, he appeared as Lord Capulet in the musical The Last Goodbye at Williamstown Theatre Festival.[13] Park then appeared as the cop in Will Eno's play Middletown at the off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre (2010).[14]

Park performed in the role of Bert Bratt in the Broadway revival How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2011), starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette.[15]

In the 2012 independent financial thriller film Supercapitalist, Park appears as Morris Brown, co-starring along with Linus Roache.

On December 5, 2013, he participated as a cast member of the NBC telecast production of The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. He played Cecco, one of Captain Hook's pirates, in the NBC presentation of Peter Pan Live! starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken; the musical was broadcast on December 4, 2014.[16]

Park has appeared in episodes of numerous television series, including The Good Wife (2012), The Blacklist (2016), You (2018, two episodes), Blue Bloods (2018), and FBI (2021).

In 2015, he created the role of Larry Murphy in the world premiere of the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen at Washington, DC's Arena Stage. He was not in the off-Broadway run, starting in early 2016, as he was appearing in the Broadway musical, Tuck Everlasting.[17] He returned to Dear Evan Hansen in the fall of 2016 when the musical made its debut on Broadway. For his work in Dear Evan Hansen, Michael Park earned the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and his third Daytime Emmy Award, this one a Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program for his and the rest of the cast's Today Show performance that was broadcast on April 25, 2017.[18][19]

In 2022, Park played Philip Abshire in the HBO series The Time Traveler's Wife.[20][21]

Personal life

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Park has been married to music therapist Laurie Nowak since January 6, 1996. They have three children.[22]

Stage credits

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Year(s) Production Role Notes
1993-1994 Hello Again The College Boy Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Broadway
1994 Shenandoah James Anderson Goodspeed Opera House
1994-1995 Carousel Billy Bigelow (standby) Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Broadway
1995-1997 Smokey Joe's Cafe Performer August Wilson Theatre, Broadway
1997 Violet Monty Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway
1998-1999 Little Me Lucky Roundabout Theatre Company
2001 Bloomer Girl Jeff Calhoun New York City Center, Encores!
2008 Applause Bill Sampson
2010 Middletown Cop Vineyard Theatre, Off-Broadway
2011-2012 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Bert Bratt Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Broadway
2012-2013 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Gooper Richard Rodgers Theatre, Broadway
2013 The Cradle Will Rock Trixie / Bugs / Dick New York City Center, Encores!
2014 The Threepenny Opera Macheath Atlantic Theater Company, Off-Broadway
2015 Tuck Everlasting Angus Tuck Alliance Theatre
Dear Evan Hansen Larry Murphy Arena Stage
2016 Tuck Everlasting Angus Tuck Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway
Ragtime Father Ellis Island Concert
2016-2019 Dear Evan Hansen Larry Murphy Music Box Theatre, Broadway
2017 Jagged Little Pill Steve Healy Workshop
2018 My One and Only Prince Nicolai Erraclyovitch Tchatchavadze Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Broadway Concert
2019 Footloose Reverend Shaw Moore Kennedy Center
2020 Next to Normal Dr. Madden / Dr. Fine
2024 Redwood Finn La Jolla Playhouse
2025 Nederlander Theatre, Broadway

See also

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References

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  1. ^ MichaelParkNet (November 2, 2009). "KDKA: ATWT in Pittsburgh (Michael Park, Maura West, Paul Leyden)". KDKA. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ "Michael Park Biography" tvguide.com, accessed June 26, 2011
  3. ^ Biography Archived 2012-01-14 at the Wayback Machine michaelparkonline.net, accessed June 26, 2011
  4. ^ Richards, David."Review of 'Helo Again'" Archived 2011-07-29 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times (from michaelparkonline.net), January 31, 1994
  5. ^ Richards, David.THEATER REVIEW; 'Shenandoah' in a 20th-Anniversary Go-Round" The New York Times, August 18, 1994 (subscription required)
  6. ^ Brantley, Ben."Theater Review: 'Smokey Joe's Cafe'" The New York Times, March 3, 1995 (subscription required)
  7. ^ Heineman, Eva."A CurtainUp Review:'Violet'" Archived 2008-01-05 at the Wayback Machine CurtainUp, accessed June 26, 2011
  8. ^ "Michael Park" Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine soap-news.com, accessed June 26, 2011
  9. ^ Gioia, Michael.How to Succeed's Michael Park Among Winners at 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards" Archived 2011-06-25 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, June 20, 2011.
  10. ^ McGrath, Sean et al."Roundabout's 'Little Me' Hopes For Big Laughs From Prince & Short; Opens Nov. 12" Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine November 12, 1998
  11. ^ Fox, Jena Tesse."Applause and Encores for Michael Park" broadwayworld.com, February 7, 2008
  12. ^ Jones, Kenneth."'Burnt Part Boys', a Musical Tale of West Virginia, Begins in NYC; Park, Brady, Calderon Star" Archived 2010-07-19 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, April 30, 2010
  13. ^ Rizzo, Frank."Legit Reviews: 'The Last Goodbye'" Variety, August 15, 2010[dead link]
  14. ^ Probst, Andy."Review: 'Middletown'" theatermania.com, November 4, 2010
  15. ^ Hetrick, Adam. "That Grin of Impetuous Youth": 'How to Succeed' Revival, With Daniel Radcliffe, Opens on Broadway" Archived 2011-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, March 27, 2011
  16. ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Handful of Broadway Newsies Make Up Peter Pan's Lost Boys and Swashbuckling Pirates", Playbill, October 7, 2014 Archived April 24, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Tuck Everlasting The Broadway League. 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016
  18. ^ McPhee, Ryan. "Dear Evan Hansen Wins 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album", Playbill, January 28, 2018
  19. ^ McPhee, Ryan. "Ben Platt and Dear Evan Hansen Co-Stars Win Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award", Playbill, April 28, 2018
  20. ^ Petski, Denise (June 4, 2021). "The Time Traveler's Wife: Jaime Ray Newman & Josh Stamberg Among 14 Cast in HBO Drama Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  21. ^ "Time Traveler's Wife, The (HBO)". The Futon Critic. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  22. ^ "About the Actors – Michael Park". soapcentral.com.
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