Michael Rosenbaum

Michael Rosenbaum
Rosenbaum in September 2010
Born	Michael Owen Rosenbaum July 11, 1972 Oceanside, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, writer
Years active	1997–present

Michael Owen Rosenbaum (born July 11, 1972) is an American film and TV actor, director, producer, writer and comedian. He is best known for his performance in Sorority Boys and for portraying Lex Luthor on the Superman television series Smallville, a role that TV Guide included in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.^[1]

Rosenbaum is also known for portraying Dutch Nilbog on FOX's Breaking In, and voiceover work in animation, such as his role of the Flash in the DC animated universe. Since 2015, he is playing the lead role in the TV Land comedy series Impastor.

Early life

Rosenbaum was born in Oceanside, New York, and raised in Newburgh, Indiana.^[2] His mother, Julie (née Eckstein), is a writer who published the book "Journey of a Lifetime," and has acted in many plays. His father, Mark Rosenbaum, works in pharmaceuticals.^[3][4] He is one of six children with two brothers, Eric and Adam, and a sister, Laurie. After his parents' divorce, his mother remarried sports reporter Gordon Engelhardt, and his father remarried Alexis Peregrino, a starting performer, with whom he had two daughters, Rosenbaum's half-sisters Ava and Lia. His uncle is pet behaviorist Warren Eckstein.^[5] Rosenbaum is Jewish, and was "closer to religion" in New York than in Indiana.^[6] Rosenbaum graduated from Castle High School in Indiana and from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, with a degree in theatre arts. Immediately after, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.

Career

Once in New York, Vincent Letizia, an MTV Networks intern spotted his 8 x 10 black-and-white photo in a batch of other casting submissions for a pilot called "Talk Girl". The pilot was never green-lighted, but Rosenbaum stood out as a newly discovered talent. A new MTV pilot was conceived specifically for Rosenbaum with the working title of "The Michael Rosenbaum Project." The project later became known as "The Temp" and covered Rosenbaum in a reality television setting as a temp, who would walk into a different job each day. The pilot featured Rosenbaum as a Cat filling in on Broadway's "Cats" musical, and as a zoo keeper filling in at the zoo, sweeping animal manure and the like. The pilot never took off with MTV Executives.

In 2001, Rosenbaum received a Saturn Award for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville. Continuing in the superhero genre, he played Wally West (a.k.a. The Flash) in the DC Comics animated series Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited as well as portraying a younger Wally West as Kid Flash in Teen Titans. In the third season Justice League Unlimited episode "Great Brain Robbery", Rosenbaum reprised his role as Lex Luthor when his character was trapped in Clancy Brown's Lex Luthor's body. In February 2008, Rosenbaum confirmed that he would be leaving Smallville after the seventh season of the show, but in 2011, he returned for the series finale.

After many months of speculation and him first turning down the contract to return, it was announced on February 11, 2011 that Rosenbaum would return to Smallville for the two-hour series finale, which aired on May 13, 2011.^[7] with Rosenbaum reprising his role as Lex Luthor.^[8]

Rosenbaum has a few notable vocal impressions in his repertoire, including Christopher Walken, Keanu Reeves, and Kevin Spacey. The makers of the DCAU have used these impressions in their work, having Rosenbaum do his Walken voice for Ghoul in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and his Spacey voice for Deadshot; coincidentally, Spacey portrayed Lex Luthor in the film Superman Returns, and Walken played Max Shreck in Batman Returns. He filmed the original SyFy comedy series Saved By Zeroes; yet was never picked up.^[9][10] He recurred in Fox's original sitcom Breaking In; getting cancelled initially, the show got a second chance, and Rosenbaum was promoted to series regular. Yet the series was cancelled again after a few episodes of the second season.^[11][12]

In 2014, Rosenbaum made his feature film directorial and writing debut with the comedy Back in the Day, where Rosenbaum stars as an actor who returns to his hometown of Indiana for a class reunion.^[13] The movie was not only partially based on characters and traditions in Rosenbaum's actual hometown, but was also filmed in Newburgh and Evansville, Indiana where he was raised. ^[14] Prior to the production of Back in the Day, Rosenbaum planned to direct another comedy film, titled Sorry is For Sissies. The film had a cast including Jon Heder and Colin Hanks, however, at least half of the film's budget was lost, therefore the film was scrapped.

On June 17, 2014, Rosenbaum was cast as the lead in the TV Land original sitcom Impastor. The plot has been summarised as a "low-life who hides out in a small town by conning the residents into thinking he is their newly hired gay pastor".^[15]

Filmography

Rosenbaum at the Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival in 2007

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	The Devil & the Angel	The Devil
1997	The Day I Ran Into All My Ex-Boyfriends	Bart
1997	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	George Tucker
1998	1999	Brick
1998	Urban Legend	Parker Riley
2000	Eyeball Eddie	Skelley	Short film
2000	Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker	Ghoul	Voice
2001	Sweet November	Brandon/Brandy
2001	Rave Macbeth	Marcus
2002	Poolhall Junkies	Danny
2002	Sorority Boys	Adam/Adina
2003	Special	Fred Molinski
2003	Bringing Down the House	Todd Gendler
2005	Cursed	Kyle	Uncredited
2005	Racing Stripes	Ruffshodd	Voice
2007	Cutlass	Background Extra #2	Short film
2007	Kickin' It Old Skool	Kip
2007	Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight	Tanis Half-Elven	Voice
2008	Shear Love[16]		Short film
2010	Father of Invention	Eddie
2010	Catch .44	Brandon
2010	Ghild	Brauly Gullivan	Short film
2012	Justice League: Doom	Barry Allen / The Flash	Voice
2012	Hit and Run	Gil
2014	Back in the Day	Jim Owens	Also director, writer, & executive producer
2015	Justice League: Throne of Atlantis	Drift Leader	Voice[17]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	The Tom Show	Jonathan Summers	Episode: "The Talk"
1999	Rocket Power	Sports Announcer	Voice Episode: "Super McVariel 900/Loss of Squid"
1999–2000	Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane	Jack Cooper	Main cast 24 episodes
1999–2001	Batman Beyond	Various	Voice 6 Episodes
2000	The Wild Thornberrys	Tom Ravenhearst	Voice Episode: "A Shaky Foundation"
2000–2004	Static Shock	Various	Voice 5 episodes
2001–2011	Smallville	Lex Luthor	154 episodes Main cast (Seasons 1-7) Special guest (Season 10) Directed the 125th episode "Freak" Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television (2002) SFX Award for Best Newcomer (2003) Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television (2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006) Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series Drama (2003) Nominated – Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV Sidekick (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009)
2001–2002	The Zeta Project	Agent West	Voice 8 episodes
2001–2006	Justice League	Wally West/The Flash Deadshot Ghoul	Voice 56 episodes
2003	Player$	Himself	Episode: "Charlie's Angels"
2004–2005	Jackie Chan Adventures	Drago	Voice 11 episodes
2005–2006	Teen Titans	Kid Flash	Voice 2 episodes
2005	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Colin	Episode: "Gun Fever"
2008	PG Porn	Charlie Brown	2 episodes
2009	Untitled Family Pilot[18]	Derek	Failed Pilot
	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Deadman	Voice Episode: "Dawn of the Dead Man!"
2011–2012	Breaking In	Dutch Nilbog	8 episodes
2015–present	Impastor[19]	Buddy Dobbs	Lead role

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Gladius	Valens	Voice
2006	Yakuza	Akira Nishiki
2008	Dark Sector	Hayden Tenno
2012	Lollipop Chainsaw	Nick Carlyle
2013	Infinite Crisis	The Flash[20][21]
2015	Batman: Arkham Knight	Johnny Charisma[22]

References

1. Bretts, Bruce; Roush, Matt; (March 25, 2013). "Baddies to the Bone: The 60 nastiest villains of all time". TV Guide. pp. 14 - 15.
2. "Michael Rosenbaum Biography (1972-)". 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
3. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/523348%7C0/Michael-Rosenbaum/
4. http://evansville-courier.vlex.com/vid/matheny-fills-russa-big-shoes-cards-372911838
5. http://www.warreneckstein.com/b/Derek-now-lives-in-the-Hollywood-Hills/-50897426434694357.html
6. Kraus, Haggay (April 2002). "Smallville Interview". Retrieved 2009-02-04.
7. Lynette Rice and James Hibberd (February 11, 2011). "'Smallville' scoop: Michael Rosenbaum will return for series finale". ew.com. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
8. "Michael Rosenbaum Returning to Smallville For Series Finale". TVGuide.com. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
9. Kevin Coll. "TV News: Michael Rosenbaum and Syfy Team Up for Comedy Series Saved by Zeroes". FusedFilm.
10. Jon Lachonis. "Smallville's Michael Rosenbaum Returning to TV". TV Overmind.
11. "Breaking News: Fox Comedy Has Big Plans For Smallville Vet Michael Rosenbaum". TVLine.
12. http://www.tv.com/news/fox-pulls-breaking-in-from-its-schedule-cancellation-is-imminent-for-real-this-time-28374/
13. "Back in the Day Movie Premieres;". BourbonBlog.com. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
14. "Back in the Day Interview;". BourbonBlog.com. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
15. "Smallville's' Michael Rosenbaum to Star in TV Land Comedy 'Impastor". The Hollywood Reporter. June 17, 2014.
16. Shear Love the Movie
17. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis End Credits
18. Andreeva, Nellie (April 27, 2009). "Missi Pyle joins NBC family pilot". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012.
19. http://www.deadline.com/tag/impastor/
20. Turbine, Inc. Infinite Crisis. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Scene: Credits, Voice Over Talent.
21. "Infinite Crisis Credits".
22. Rocksteady Studios. Batman: Arkham Knight. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Scene: Credits, 13:05 in, Voiceover & Mocap Talent.

External links

• Michael Rosenbaum at the Internet Movie Database